The second Pacific Islands Ocean Conference (PIOC) was successfully held in Honiara, Solomon Islands, from 29September to 3 October 2025. PIOC was attended by over 300 participants from
Pacific member states, regional and international agencies, local authorities, civil society, private sector and international donors.
Halatoa Fua, NES Director, attended the regional ocean conference, together with other representatives from Marae Moana, Ministry of Marine Resources, and Wildlife Conservation Society from the Cook Islands. The conference was organised by the Pacific Community (SPC), Office of the Pacific Commissioner (OPOC), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
The conference gathered regional and international stakeholders to discuss challenges and successes in Pacific Ocean science, integrated ocean management by sectoral approaches, and the integration of traditional knowledge into scientific research and ocean management initiatives. Parallel sessions were carried out to cover sectoral topics from fisheries, maritime transport, marine pollution, marine spatial planning and protected areas, climate and ocean science, early warning systems and resilient ocean ecosystems. The sessions covering community-based fisheries management, ocean acidification and coral reef management had high attendance rates.
During PIOC, the Cook Islands delegates from NES and Marae Moana joined the first official meeting of the CaB-Smart Marine Spatial Planning Project Steering Committee, together with officials and partners from Kiribati, Niue and the Solomon Islands. Partners from New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, SPC and SPREP joined the steering committee meeting. These countries are a part of the Climate and Biodiversity-Smart Marine Spatial Planning, which is an ocean management project to address climate risks, biodiversity conservation, and integrate traditional knowledge and customary practices. The Cook Islands is currently executing component #3, which is to co-develop a range of indicators for marine spatial planning in the Cook Islands.
Halatoa Fua joined the final panel on ‘A clean, healthy and resilient ocean’, specifically focusing on marine plastic pollution. The topic covered plastic pollution being an ocean problem and not a littering problem, and extended to the microplastics impact on ocean health, and hazardous chemicals in plastics causing harm to human health. Halatoa stated in his panel interventions ‘Of all the marine debris, 80% is plastics, from fishing gear to single use plastics and microplastics. Single use plastics make up 70% of the marine debris. Plastics is smothering and killing our marine environment.’
PIOC is a powerful platform for the Pacific region to come together and discus many topics to strengthen the science-policy interface towards sustainable ocean management. It also provides an opportunity to host ocean-related commitments to draw on the networks and experts available. Halatoa Fua acknowledged the excellent hosting by the Government and the people of the Solomon Islands, who dedicated many opportunities, from the opening to the closing events, to focus on the importance of traditional knowledge and local practices to ocean governance, management and conservation.
For more information: https://www.spc.int/events/pacific-islands-ocean-conference-2025
