The Role of the Tuna Fishery in the Economy of the Federated States of Micronesia

Abstract

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) inherited an environmentally fragile and somewhat arbitrary base for nationhood that bears little resemblance to its inhabitants’ usual spheres of interaction during millennia of occupation of the region. FSM has a small population scattered across a myriad of islands whose land area is far smaller than the tuna-rich area of ocean encompassed within its territorial waters. It is perhaps not surprising then that FSM’s fisheries have been seen by many as the main hope for its economic future. This issue has become all the more urgent in recent years with the signing of a new agreement that will see funding by the United States gradually diminish until 2023. The search for viable alternatives to its past and current reliance on US funding has now become the central issue in FSM. While fisheries are an important asset for FSM, other economic options offer perhaps greater promise, while the modification of existing Carolinian institutions offers a more effective and possibly less disruptive means of achieving economic independence and modernity and a sustainable fishery than other solution, which seek to ‘fast-track’ the process by grafting modern western institutions onto islander societies. These problems and proposed solutions are not limited to FSM, but have wider applicability across much of Oceania.