PINA

Officers from the Department of Environment Protection and Conservation (DEPC) and the Vanuatu Fisheries Department (VFD) recently completed specialised training to improve national management and reporting of shark conservation measures and obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The four-day workshop was organised by the By-catch and Integrated Ecosystem Management (BIEM) Initiative of the Pacific-European Union...

Fiji 7s Olympic Games gold medal winning coach Gareth Baber believes the Flying Fijians management has done an extraordinary job with the side and is eager to see them perform at the Rugby World Cup. The now Director of Rugby at Cardiff Metropolitian University returned to the country with the Oceania Rugby Women’s Combine after being abroad for over two...

Papua New Guinea’s National Broadcaster, the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea (NBC) will be broadcasting the 2023 Pacific Games in PNG come November and December this year. This comes after the broadcaster reached an agreement with the SOL2023 Games Organising Committee (GOC). Operating a free to air TV channel, and several radio stations in a country with a population...

Athletics leaders from Oceania have expressed fears for the future of their islands here, and warned "we are actually talking two different languages" in search of continual improvement in competition while combating climate change. Athletics Cook Islands President Simone Fe'ao was part of the panel discussion with officials from Kiribati, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu entitled "Sport on the Climate Change...

The Government of Japan has requested the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) begin preparations for the release of treated water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean, with the first treated water set to be discharged on or after 24 August 2023. Japan has reassured the region that the water has been treated through the Advanced...

The head of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community(SPC) says the region should develop scientific capability “that is owned and trusted” to monitor and advise on radioactive isotopes. Speaking on the eve of the likely first release of treated water stored at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, Dr Stuart Minchin says it’s not a panic situation, as...

A Japanese government spokesperson says it is “not wilfully trying to divide the Pacific" over the Fukushima waste release. Japan is set to start discharging more than one million tonnes of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday local time. This comes 12 years after a tsunami slammed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant resulting in what has been...

Greenpeace has criticised the Japanese government’s announcement of the start date for radioactive water discharges from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station into the Pacific Ocean. The decision disregards scientific evidence, violates the human rights of communities in Japan and the Pacific region, and is non-compliant with international maritime law. More importantly it ignores its people’s concerns, including fishermen. The Japanese...

The Cook Islands Government has acquired a fleet of 25 Hyundai Ionic electric vehicles, valued at $1.7 million (US$1 million) landed cost which will be used to transport the Leaders during the five days of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders (PIFLM52) to be held in November. Two processes, overseen by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (MFEM)were carried...

Given our Blue Pacific region's ongoing nuclear testing legacy, and our collective commitment to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ) – also known as the Treaty of Rarotonga – the Forum will always exercise the highest levels of caution on all nuclear related issues. As related to the complex case of the Japan Fukushima nuclear wastewater issue, PIF Leaders...