Kolonia, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, 9 June 2026 – The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has formally joined the Fisheries and Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS), a global partnership coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
WCPFC Executive Director Ms Rhea Moss-Christian met online with Dr Manuel Barange, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, to sign the FIRMS Partnership Arrangement. The Arrangement provides for international cooperation in developing and maintaining FIRMS.
The signing follows the Commission's decision at its Twenty-Second Regular Session (WCPFC22) in 2025 to join the partnership. With WCPFC on board, all five tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) now take part in FIRMS.
About FIRMS
The primary aim of the Fisheries and Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS) is to provide access to a wide range of high-quality information on the global monitoring and management of fishery marine resources.
FIRMS is a formal information partnership grounded in the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. It brings together regional fisheries bodies and other institutions that share information on the status and trends of marine resources and fisheries. FAO provides the Secretariat to the FIRMS Steering Committee.
Each partner contributes according to its mandate, reporting on the stocks and fisheries it monitors or manages, and keeps ownership of the information it provides. FIRMS makes this information available through public inventories of marine resources and fisheries, fact sheets and an interactive stocks and fisheries map viewer. It also supports FAO's global reporting on the state of fishery resources.
Before WCPFC's accession, the tuna RFMOs participating in FIRMS were the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).
A complete global picture of tuna stocks
WCPFC's accession fills the last regional gap in tuna reporting within FIRMS. The Western and Central Pacific Ocean supports the world's largest tuna fisheries. With all five tuna RFMOs now participating, FIRMS can offer a more complete global view of tuna stocks and fisheries in one place.
As a partner, WCPFC will contribute publicly-available information on the stocks and fisheries under its mandate, drawn from the scientific work of its Scientific Committee and the Pacific Community's Oceanic Fisheries Programme, the Commission's scientific services provider. This will help keep the fisheries data and information maintained by FAO up to date and accurate.
Partnership also gives the Commission a further channel to share the outcomes of its conservation and management work with governments, industry, researchers, and the public. It strengthens cooperation with FAO and the other tuna RFMOs on common information standards.
FIRMS was first introduced to WCPFC at the third regular session of its Scientific Committee in 2007. Today's signing marks the conclusion of a long engagement between the two organisations.
More information on FIRMS, its mission and its partners is available at firms.fao.org.