🟢 South Pacific albacore: WCPFC22 adopted a science-based management procedure, a major step towards long-term stability for the fishery.
đź”´ Implementation deferred: Key decisions on implementation and catch allocation were not agreed and are scheduled for further discussion in 2026.
đźź Â Mixed progress elsewhere: Incremental gains on seabird protections were agreed, but implementation is delayed. No meaningful progress was made on at-sea transshipment, observer coverage or operationalising electronic monitoring.
🟡 What’s next: The Commission now faces a critical period of intensive work throughout 2026 to turn frameworks into effective, enforceable measures across priority stocks and monitoring systems.
The Commission formally adopted a management procedure, shifting the fishery towards a more modern approach where pre-agreed management responses are based on stock status, rather than being renegotiated each year.
This outcome matters because it increases stability of the fishery which benefits Pacific Island economies and businesses sourcing albacore from the region, supporting long-term planning, investment and market confidence. It also helps safeguard the credibility of sustainable sourcing claims, including the certification expectations that many supply chains rely on.
In the lead-up to WCPFC22, South Pacific albacore was widely recognised as a defining test of the Commission’s ability to deliver stable, science-based management. For Pacific Island economies and for markets sourcing albacore from the region, the risks of continued delay were clear.
Through our Anchor Albacore’s Future work, we helped reinforce a consistent message to decision-makers: there was strong market expectation for the adoption of a credible management procedure, and real consequences for supply chain confidence if progress stalled. This aligned with, and complemented, the Pacific-led proposal and the scientific advice underpinning it.
By aligning market voices with regional leadership and science, we helped maintain momentum through a complex and at times fragile negotiation process, underscoring the importance of delivering a durable outcome at WCPFC22.
While the management procedure itself was adopted, the complementary conservation and management measure (the implementing CMM) remains unresolved, including the operational rules and allocation questions that determine how the total tuna catch recommended by the adopted Management Procedure is shared between nations.. These issues are expected to be negotiated in 2026.
In practical terms, WCPFC22 has locked in the science-driven framework, but the Commission now needs to finalise how it will be implemented and how catches will be shared. Those discussions can be lengthy and politically complex, which is why the 2026 workplan will be pivotal.
Alongside albacore, WCPFC22 outcomes across other priorities were mixed. GTA’s assessment is that the Commission made some genuine steps forward, but deferred or fell short on several core reforms needed to strengthen monitoring and reduce risk in tuna supply chains, including monitoring, transshipment and bycatch measures.
WCPFC22 adopted an updated seabird conservation measure, expanding protections and requiring additional, specific mitigation measures in higher-risk areas. This is an important conservation step, reflecting the role of persistent, science-based advocacy, although implementation has been delayed until 2028, limiting its immediate impact.
Revisions to the transshipment measure were deferred again, and the current rules remain well short of best practice standards. This remains a major gap in the Commission’s monitoring, control and surveillance architecture and an ongoing source of risk.
No progress was made on increasing the longline observer coverage requirement beyond the current minimum level. In addition, work to operationalise the recently adopted electronic monitoring standards did not advance at WCPFC22. This leaves a persistent monitoring gap that continues to undermine effective management and enforcement.
WCPFC22 did not make substantive progress on FAD management, with a timeline for transitioning to biodegradable FADs deferred to 2026. This leaves WCPFC behind other tuna RFMOs on an issue with clear environmental and scientific implications.
The Commission did not reach agreement on target reference points for bigeye and yellowfin, slowing the pathway towards future management procedures. Some amendments to the current shark measure were made to support the evaluation of the effectiveness of alternative measures available to those wishing to continue the removal of fins. A small step toward the goal of requiring all fins to remain attached.
WCPFC22 showed that the Commission can deliver major decisions when ambition, preparation and political will align, as seen with South Pacific albacore. The priority now is to maintain momentum through 2026, when the Commission is expected to return to the unresolved implementation and allocation questions for albacore and advance work on monitoring and other reform areas.
GTA will continue working with partners and stakeholders to support credible, science-based management and stronger monitoring across tuna fisheries, and to help ensure that progress at WCPFC translates into real-world implementation.
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