At the
Fourth South Pacific Commission Technical Meeting on Fisheries
held in Noumea from 21 to 29 October 1970, and at the following
South Pacific Islands Fisheries Development Agency (SPIFDA)
Fishery Consultative Meeting from 30 October to 4 November,
the need for an information system which would permit the
Territories to keep up to date on developments in fisheries
and marine biology, particularly as they relate to the reefs
and lagoons, was strongly emphasised by the participants.
The Newsletter
was first published as the South Pacific Islands Fisheries
Newsletter in April 1971. It was issued jointly by the South
Pacific Islands Fisheries Development Agency and United Nations
Development Programme (Special Fund) Project, with the Food
and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) as
Executing Agency and the South Pacific Commission as Co-operating
Agency on behalf of participating governments.
In the
first editorial Mr J.A. Tubb (FAO) and Mr V.T. Hinds (SPC)
stated that: "For a publication such as this to be of
value, it must draw on sources of information and rely on
the goodwill and active support of the people directly concerned
with this range of activities. Accordingly, we are appealing
in this first issue for a more positive approach to the problem
by our colleagues in government and in the fishing game. Such
successes as you have achieved or the failures you may have
experienced may be of extreme interest and value to others
working in the same field, to assist them in their development
programmes and to help them avoid errors and omissions which
would retard such programmes. The responsibility for the success
of this Newsletter as a means of disseminating information
and assisting your colleagues depends largely upon yourself
and we end this Editorial with a strong plea for your co-operation
and assistance."
In December
1973, SPFIDA formally ended and the Sixth SPC Technical Meeting
on Fisheries requested that the South Pacific Commission continue
to issue a Newsletter which would become the SPC Fisheries
Newsletter.
PDF files can be downloaded
(right-click) or viewed
in Adobe Acrobat browser, which can be downloaded for free from
the