UK and Pacific Islands work together to protect marine resources

· Training programme strengthens fisheries monitoring and enforcement across 15 Pacific nations

· Initiative tackles illegal fishing threatening food security and livelihoods of island communities

Pacific island communities will benefit from enhanced protection of their marine resources through a UK training programme supporting fisheries enforcement across the region. The initiative will strengthen the capacity of 15 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to detect and respond to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activity that threatens their economies and food security.

This initiative was launched under the Sustainable Blue Economies Technical Assistance Platform, a UK International Development programme, and is being delivered in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). The project will train national fisheries officers from FFA member states in fisheries data analysis and GIS. Officers will learn to process and analyse data from Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) tools, including vessel monitoring systems, aerial surveillance and satellite imagery, to identify potential IUU fishing activity within their waters.

IUU fishing undermines the Pacific's tuna stocks, which are vital to regional economies and coastal livelihoods. The training will enable faster detection of illegal activity and improved coordination between national enforcement agencies across the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Standard operating procedures developed through the programme will enable consistent enforcement practices across participating nations. Training materials will be designed to support ongoing knowledge transfer throughout the region.

The initiative aligns with the UK government's commitment to strengthen international partnerships and support sustainable development. Healthier fish stocks will benefit related industries including fish processing and trading.

Training workshops took place in Fiji in December 2025 with the next ones in Australia, in January 2026.

A spokesperson for the Forum Fisheries Agency said: “We have successfully completed Phase 1 of the FFA Regional MCS Data Analysis Training in Fiji on a high note. Thank you to UK SBE for the all the support. We had a great workshop and received good feedback from the participants.”

Participants highlighted how useful the training was for their roles and shared that they plan to apply the skills they learned in their MCS operations.