Fourteen Pacific island nations will receive $107 million to help adapt their tuna-dependent economies to the impacts of climate change, the Green Climate Fund announced earlier this week.

This grant, the fund's largest ever for a project without loans, aims to combat the growing threat posed by warming oceans, which are pushing tuna stocks away from these nations' exclusive economic zones (EEZs), MSN reported.

The funding will be used to develop an advanced warning system to track tuna migration patterns. This will allow Pacific nations to predict economic impacts better, negotiate effectively with fishing fleets, and potentially seek compensation when fish stocks shift due to climate change.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change created the Green Climate Fund in 2010 as a financing mechanism to help developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

Based in South Korea, the fund relies on contributions from wealthy countries. But US president Donald Trump announced this month that he was rescinding $4 billion in US commitments to the fund.

The grant will benefit the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Though small in land area, these countries collectively manage vast EEZs and contribute about one-third of the world's tuna catch.

"These are the countries that contribute the least to the climate crisis and now are going to lose a resource that they have collectively stewarded better than any other ocean basin," said Jack Kittinger, senior vice president at Conservation International, the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit environmental organization that led the research behind the grant. "This is the ultimate climate justice issue."

As tuna stocks migrate further into the high seas, fishing fleets can catch them without paying fees to island nations, threatening vital government revenues. In some countries, fishing licenses and fees make up more than 80% of governmental income.

Part of the grant will also fund efforts to boost local tuna consumption as climate change reduces stocks of traditional reef fish. Additionally, it will support the use of fish aggregation devices to attract tuna closer to shore and secure more bycatch for local use when fishing vessels dock.

The Pacific Community, an organization providing scientific and technical assistance to the region, will implement the project over seven years.

WCPO's latest tuna status stock

The tuna catch in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean in 2023 was 2.623m metric tons, a 1.3% decrease from 2022, representing 53% of the global tuna catch, according to a summary of the status of the stock report of the Pacific Community summarized by consultant Francisco Blaha on its blog.

Photo credit: Francisco Blaha.

Blaha pointed out that skipjack tuna has consistently been the most caught species, with significant contributions from purse-seine and pole-and-line methods, accounting for 62% of the total catch in 2023. Yellowfin tuna catches have shown variability. They increased 7% from 2022 and now make up 28% of the total catch.

Bigeye tuna catches have shown variability, with a 1% decrease from 2022, making up 6% of the total catch. South Pacific albacore catches are predominantly from longline gear, with a 3% increase from 2022, making up 4% of the total catch.

Blaha observed that purse-seine accounted for 70% of the total catch, longline for 9%, pole-and-line for 4% and troll for less than 1%.