SHRIMP TRAWLING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Besides industrial tuna fishing which occurs in the waters of all Pacific Island countries, the only other significant form of industrial fishing in the Pacific Islands region is shrimp trawling in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

The history of the PNG shrimp trawl fishery is poorly documented. Philippson and Lindley (2005) indicate that the fishery began 36 years ago in the Gulf of Papua which is located in the south of Papua New Guinea. According to an individual working in Papua New Guinea in the mid-1970s (R. Kearney, personal communication), the first fishing was by an Australian shrimp company. This was followed by involvement of Japanese fishing companies in the early 1970s. Kailola (1995) gives some information on the development of the four shrimp trawl fisheries in PNG.

• The Gulf of Papua fishery has operated commercially since the late 1960s. In 1976, three companies operated with three licences each. In 1978, two old vessels were commissioned by a joint venture company to fish inside the 3-mile limit and in the same year an old trawler returned to Japan and was not replaced. In 1981, four national companies chartered vessels to operate inside the 3-mile zone wile one foreign-owned vessel operated outside the 3-mile zone. This brought the total for that year to 19 vessels. Except for 1981 however, the average number of vessels operating in the Gulf of Papua fishery has been 13-14. During 1986, the number of licensed operators increased to 21, with the introduction of Australian chartered vessels.
• The Orangerie Bay fishery is known to be seasonal and geographically restricted to an area of 15.5 sq km. It has been fished intermittently by small class vessels (9�16 m length) since 1981.
• The Torres Strait fishery was entirely Australian until 1987 when two PNG vessels entered and by August of that year there were four PNG vessels (Australian boats chartered to PNG companies).
• The Western Province artisanal fishery commenced after a 1982 survey to determine the potential for low technology fishing using small boats or canoes. Beam trawls, beach seines and light weight otter trawls were employed and fishing was conducted in 1 to 6 m of water, from Sui on the mouth of the Fly River to Sigabaduru west of Daru. Almost all areas to within ten nautical miles of the shore were trawlable, depending on the state of the tide.

According to Philippson and Lindley (2005), the boats in the PNG shrimp trawl industry are universally old. None presently in the fleet are less than 15 years old and some are more than 30. Generally they are fully amortized. Boats change hand regularly in the fleet.

Production in the PNG shrimp trawl industry has been variable over the past two decades. About 600 tonnes of shrimp worth about US$4 million was exported in 2004.

Despite interest in experimental shrimp trawling in other parts of the Pacific Islands (e.g. New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga), no sustained fishing operations have developed. The main lesson learned from that work is that most Pacific Islands have conditions unfavourable for shrimp trawling due to rugged underwater topography, limited trawlable area, and extreme depths. Another important point is that the magnitude of shrimp trawling in the Pacific Islands is actually quite small compared with industrial tuna fishing, with the value of fishing for tuna being about 400 times greater.