Marshall Islands - Fishing

While subsistence fishing for inshore species is carried out from all atolls, there is little domestic commercial fishing in the nation's 1,942,500 sq km (750,000 sq mi) of sea. The total catch in 2000 amounted to 7,960 tons. Principal marine resources include tuna, prawns, shrimp, seaweed, sponges, black pearls, giant clams, trochus, and green mussels. Colorful baby giant clams for ornamental aquariums are grown for export to the US.

A fisheries base with a freezer plant (200 tons capacity) and a chilling plant (50 tons capacity) was constructed in Majuro with Japanese government assistance. In 1986, the Marshall Islands Maritime Authority (MIMA) was reestablished to organize all marine resource activities, including protection, management, and development, under one agency. During the mid-1990s, about 10,500 foreign fishing vessels annually operated in the Marshall Islands' waters, about three-fourths of them Japanese.