Fiji has nominated Ambassador Satya Nandan for the post of chairman of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). 

This comes ahead of the 5th regular session meeting of the WCPFC members scheduled for Busan, Korea, between the 8 and 12th of this month.

The nomination was announced last month by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), whose member countries—Fiji is one of them—are also members of the WCPFC. 

FFA said this sole nomination will be voted upon at the Forum Fisheries Committee (FFC) meeting just prior to the main WCPFC meeting. 

If chosen as FFA’s nomination, Nandan is expected to run a stiff race against the United States and Japan who are also fielding nominations for the post. 

Its members are FFA members as well distant water fishing nations (DWFNs), which include Australia, China, Canada, European Community, France, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Chinese Taipei and the USA.

WCPFC executive director Andrew Wright told Islands Business that by last month, they were aware that the other two nominees were William Gibbons-Fly from the United States and Masanori Miyahara from Japan. 

Gibbons-Fly is the director of the Office of Marine Conservation at the US Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs while Miyahara serves on the Japan Fisheries Agency and is the current chair of WCPFC’s Northern Committee. 

Since the setting up of the WCPFC in 2004, its chairmanship has been held by Glenn Hurry, managing director of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.

Elections for the office is held every two years, said Wright, and the office holder can serve two two-year terms.

The three candidates are familiar names in Pacific fishing management and conservation circles.

But there is a strong indication that the FFA nominee will be backed by most FFA members as this was the sentiment at the FFC’s last special meeting in Samoa last month. 

Nandan is currently the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority.

He also served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Special Representative of the Secretary General for the Law of the Sea from 1983 to 1992. 

Prior to that, Nandan was Fiji’s foreign secretary, Fiji’s Representative to the United Nations, and Fiji’s ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

His work related to fishing issues and oceanic resource management includes his experience as chairman of the United Nations Conference which adopted the 1995 Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and his role in chairing the Multilateral High Level Conference which negotiated the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (1997-2000). 

He has also written on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations and related matters and is a general editor and co-author of the Law of the Sea Commentary Series, a publication by the University of Virginia Centre for Oceans Law and Policy.

If elected as WCPFC chair, Nandan will become the first Pacific Islander to chair the Pohnpei-based organisation.

On the agenda of the Korea meeting is the election of chair and vice-chair of the Tuna Commission, chair of the Scientific Committee and chair of the Northern Committee.

Members are expected to discuss issues of relevance to Pacific islands fishing and a key issue on the agenda is a discourse on reference points in the management of highly migratory fish stocks in WCPFC waters.