Fishing Vessel Ocean Observing Network (FVON) – Climate Change Project
Monitoring Ocean environmental variables using FIA PNG fishing vessels - Papua New Guinea
In 2023, in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, our COO Marcelo Hidalgo had an initial conversation with Andrew Wright from SPC on how both organisations could collaborate in research to collect Oceanic data using FIA PNG fishing vessels as platforms for doing it. Later in 2024, and after several remote meetings, this became a good proposal presented to FIA PNG members, explaining the benefits for the sector and the region. A strong concept, proposal, and benefits were developed by then to start with the joint research in 2025. SPC – Cynthia W. and FIA PNG - Alice P. took the lead locally in Papua New Guinea and started to coordinate with tuna fleet members; the project is running perfectly, and lessons learned come up every time they visit tuna fishing vessels.
Our MSC & Sustainability coordinator, Nialangis Posanau, was invited to participate in the Fishing Vessel Observation Network (FVON) Workshop hosted by SPC in Noumea, New Caledonia, 16-20 March, 2026, as part of this project that started in Rarotonga during the WCPFC annual meeting in 2023.
SPC Operational Focal Point arranged for a team of 2, Nialangis (Alice) Posanau (PNG FIA), and Ms Cynthia Wickham (SPC), to visit PNG from 10-15 October to install temperature-depth profile sensors (Fig 1) on commercial purse seiners based in PNG.
After the initial installations of equipment last year (2025), Ms. Cynthia was back in PNG to provide an update on the data and information collected since the inception of this project, and a newly developed App was the latest innovation created by SPC, where Captains or First Mates on board vessels can easily access the depth profiles for this equipment on board instead of waiting to come into port, should they have Wi-Fi access on board whilst out at sea, straight to their Android tablets or phones instead of waiting for an email to come in.
Figure 1. Sensor and Deck units installed on board ships of opportunity
Our Sustainability Coordinator travelled with Ms. Cynthia to liaise with our vessel member fleets to do installations and also provide updates to the vessel representatives. They visited Rabaul Port and Lae Port to provide updates and also to share the new Android application “Ocean Monitor” App to all Captains who volunteered and took part in this important project.
The site visits included courtesy visits to the NFA Port Office in Rabaul and Lae and the same updates were also disseminated during the successful trip.
SPC expressed their appreciation and acknowledged FIA PNG fleet members who took part in this significant project and we were commended for the increase in vessel numbers. The data and information collected now show a clear path of where the impacts of Climate Change indicators are happening in the sub-surface area of our ocean.
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