The Pacific's regional science body has delivered a bumper year for the ocean. The Pacific Community (SPC), headquartered in Suva, poured EUR46 million (about US$53 million) into ocean-related projects across 20 Pacific Island countries and territories in 2025, according to its first-ever Ocean Flagship Report. That covered 105 separate projects — nearly a third of SPC's entire budget — spanning fisheries, marine protection, ocean forecasting and community programmes.
For anyone planning a trip to the islands, one finding stands out: all four major tuna stocks in the Western and Central Pacific — skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye and South Pacific albacore — remain biologically healthy, with no overfishing. That's good news if you're hoping to eat responsibly caught sashimi in Fiji or book a game-fishing charter in Solomon Islands waters. SPC also helped set up seven small-scale coastal aquaculture enterprises in Fiji and backed a new management procedure for albacore at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
The safety side matters too. Forty-seven projects worth over EUR21 million went into ocean observation, forecasting and disaster preparedness. Tonga, the Cook Islands and Fiji upgraded their climate and geospatial services, while Fiji and Vanuatu strengthened disaster risk information for seismic events — the kind of behind-the-scenes work that underpins reliable weather warnings for travellers and locals alike. SPC also helped secure maritime boundaries with new treaties between Samoa and France, Tuvalu and Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, and pushed the Pacific One Maritime Framework, endorsed by regional ministers in May 2026, to improve shipping access and tackle marine pollution.
There were honest caveats. The report admits it struggles to measure long-term impact, especially around traditional knowledge and community engagement, where outcome data is patchy. On the funding side, SPC secured over EUR92 million in new partnerships and US$107.4 million for the Regional Tuna Programme, plus help for countries tapping US$22.9 million in multilateral climate finance.
Elsewhere in the Pacific this week: Tonga's schools are set to receive 33,000 new books in 2027; Solomon Islands released a national risk assessment flagging a high money-laundering threat, with fraud, scams and cybercrime now ranked the top danger; and Fiji's fisheries minister backed a $20 million guarantee to keep the PAFCO fish processing operation running. The Commonwealth also launched a US$202 million Nature Initiative at CHOGM 2026 in Antigua and Barbuda, aimed at protecting lands and oceans by 2030.
Why should a traveller care? Because the health of Pacific waters shapes everything visitors come for — swimmable reefs, abundant fish, safe inter-island sailing and resilient coastal towns. Money flowing into biosecurity, marine spatial planning and early-career ocean professionals across Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Vanuatu is quietly protecting the experiences holidays here depend on. Report from Islands Business.
