PACIFIC REGION, 2 MAY 2013: The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) announced the winners of the World Tuna Day Art and Talent Quest today - a major new opportunity to showcase Pacific talent and passion for tuna.

First Prize (USD $3000) was awarded to Chelcia Gomese (Solomon Islands) for her short story “When seagulls soar the seas again” a beautiful fable about a community whose tuna were lost through unsustainable development then returned to their shores.

Runner Up prizes ($1000 each) were awarded to Christopher Usuka (Papua New Guinea) for his poem “Drifting canoes” describing the experience of tuna fishing and Yvonne Neth (Federated States of Micronesia) for her artwork “Bigeye tuna snared” depicting the sadness of overfishing of tuna in an attempt to prompt action.

Special mentions ($150 each) were awarded by the PNA to Lapieh Landu (Papua New Guinea) for a poem, Max Tihu (Papua New Guinea) for drawings and concepts and Tetaake Yee Ting (Kiribati) for an essay describing traditional fishing methods.

ALL PRIZE WINNING ENTRIES CAN BE VIEWED BELOW

PNA Director Dr Transform Aqorau said: “With over double the amount of entries from last year, we were delighted with the range and quality of entries from all the PNA countries. However, the winning entry and runners up entries stood out as being original, high-quality works of art that celebrate the importance of tuna to our people and the need to protect this vital resource. I would like to congratulate all the winners and thank again our sponsors – our gold sponsor NFA from PNG and our corporate sponsors Trimarine International and Frabelle.”

A booklet featuring the best entries from each of the PNA countries will be released at the Pacific Tuna Forum in September 2013.