Country profile
Coastal fisheries snapshot
demersal fish (including parrotfish and soldierfish), invertebrates for sale (e.g. sea cucumbers) and gleaned from intertidal habitats (e.g. clams), and nearshore pelagic fish (including tuna and flying fish) using a range of fishing methods.
Top 5 training topics
Gender participation
Male participations: 28 (50%) · Female participations: 28 (50%)
Yearly participations (2016–2025)
Projected changes in atmospheric & ocean climate (by 2050)
Relative to 1995-2014 baseline. Regional CMIP6 projections applied to Tokelau's climate zone (Northeast Pacific Convergence).
Coastal fisheries (current vs 2050)
demersal fish (including parrotfish and soldierfish), invertebrates for sale (e.g. sea cucumbers) and gleaned from intertidal habitats (e.g. clams), and nearshore pelagic fish (including tuna and flying fish) using a range of fishing methods.
Oceanic fisheries (current vs 2050)
Tuna fisheries — skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye and albacore. Habitat areas projected to shift with ocean temperature, stratification and oxygen content changes.
Freshwater & estuarine fisheries (current vs 2050)
Inland fisheries are expected to be affected by changes in rainfall patterns, river flow, and habitat accessibility by 2050.
Freshwater fisheries data being compiled for this country.
Aquaculture (current vs 2050)
Mariculture impacted by sea surface temperature, ocean acidification and intense storms. Freshwater aquaculture may benefit from increased freshwater habitat but face disease and temperature pressure.
Aquaculture data being compiled for this country.
Livelihoods & economies (current vs 2050)
Fisheries and aquaculture provide household income, jobs and government revenue. Climate-driven changes will affect employment and economic contribution.
Aquatic food security (current vs 2050)
Aquatic (blue) foods provide an important source of nutrition. Population growth combined with climate impacts may create deficits in fish supply.
Blue food production systems (current vs 2050)
Blue foods contribute to nutrition security, economies, livelihoods and jobs. Climate impacts on coastal, oceanic, freshwater fisheries and aquaculture together determine the system's resilience.
In Tokelau, blue foods make very high contributions to nutrition security and health, economies, as well as livelihoods and jobs. Compared to other Pacific islands, projected climate impacts to blue food production by 2050 are medium to high. Socioeconomic conditions make Tokelau's sustainable development highly vulnerable to climate-induced losses.
Recommended adaptation: Food & nutrition security
- Implement sustainable ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management Food and Nutrition 7
Recommended adaptation: Sustainable livelihoods
- Diversify production of fisheries and aquaculture commodities Livelihoods 4
Recommended adaptation: Economies & government revenue
- Implement climate-informed fisheries management Economic Revenue 2
- Implement energy efficiency programs for fisheries and aquaculture Economic Revenue 4
- Maintain the contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to government revenue and economies
- Climate-proof infrastructure
Community-based Fisheries Management — Tokelau
Source: Govan & Lalavanua 2022 (SPC), updated from FAO & SPC Outlook 2026. See the regional CBFM Report for full analysis.
Coastal fisheries in Tokelau
demersal fish (including parrotfish and soldierfish), invertebrates for sale (e.g. sea cucumbers) and gleaned from intertidal habitats (e.g. clams), and nearshore pelagic fish (including tuna and flying fish) using a range of fishing methods.
Tuna fisheries in Tokelau
The Pacific is home to the world's largest tuna fishery, with member countries' EEZs producing over half of the global tuna catch. Tokelau's EEZ covers 319,031 km², providing significant access to tuna and other oceanic resources.
Fisheries Contributions to Tokelau's Economy
Harvest by sector (1999 → 2021)
Volume and economic value of fisheries production by sector, from successive Benefish studies. Use the toggle to switch between volume (tonnes) and value (NZ$).
Fishing contribution to GDP
Official contribution of fishing (and aquaculture, where included) to Tokelau's GDP, in NZ$ (units). The line shows the percentage of total GDP.
Key findings from Benefish Study 4
26.2 Contribution of fishing to GDP
Current official contribution According to the Tokelau National Statistician (K. Lui, per. com. October 2022), the last time work on the GDP of Tokelau was carried out was in 2017. The Tokelau Statistics website states: The Tokelau National Statistics Office has released the country's Gross Domestic Product figure for the first time. For the 2015/16 Financial Year ( July–June), it was determined to be NZ$14 million.
Full chapter section in Benefish Study 4 →
26.3 Exports of fishery production
In some reports on Tokelau there is mention of small amounts of fishery exports: • The 2015/16 HIES states that a small amount of income is generated from sales of stamps and commemorative coins. Other than that, there is no export of any significance from Tokelau. Some small-scale fish catches are sent to family in Samoa, and some solid waste is exported to Apia (NSO 2016).
Full chapter section in Benefish Study 4 →
26.4 Government revenue from fisheries
Access fees for offshore fishing As stated above, the Tokelau paper for the 2022 meeting of the WCPFC Scientific Committee (TFMA 2022) indicates that in 2021 a total of 37 purse seiners and 16 longliners were licensed to fish in the Tokelau EEZ. A complicating factor for portraying the access fees for offshore fishing in the Tokelau zone is a provision in the purse seine vessel day scheme which allows a participating country to both transfer and pool purse seine days to other participating countries, depending on where the purse seine fishing is concentrated. Consequently, the revenue earned by Tokelau from purse seining is not limited to fishing within the Tokelau EEZ. The revenue earned by the Tokelau government from foreign-based offshore fishing is given in Table 26-8. Year Revenue (US$) 2000–2010 (average) 1.00 million 2011 1.20 million 2012 3.10 million 2013 6.40 million 2014 9.05 million 2015 10.40 million 2016 13.25 million 2017 12.75 million 2018 12.70 million 2019 12.80 million 2020 13.00 million 2021 12.60 million Agency (unpublished data) Two points should be made about the above revenue: • If total revenue (i.e. tax and non-tax revenue) of the Tokelau government in 20206 was NZ$37,841,000 (SPC/SDD), the US$12.6 million (NZ18.5 million) in the above table represents about 49% of the government revenue for that year. • From a previous section on the foreign-based offshore catches above, the in-zone value of the catch of foreign-based vessels was about NZ$14.0 million in 2021. From the table immediately above, US$12.6 million (NZ$18.5 million) was earned by Tokelau in 2021 from offshore fisheries. Although it may appear that Tokelau is earning more money from foreign vessels than their catch is worth, the actual situation is explained above: the stated revenue earned in the table is made up of fees for fishing in the Tokelau zone and money earned from transferring/pooling some of Tokelau's purse seine vessel days. Other government revenue from fisheries No documentation is available on non-access government revenue from the fisheries sector. The Director of Tokelau's Department of Economic Development, Natural Resources and Environment stated that the island administrations do not tax or license fishing activity (M. Perez, per. com. September 2015). 6 The 2021 Tokelau government revenue is not yet available.
Full chapter section in Benefish Study 4 →
26.5 Fisheries-related employment
The 2015/16 Tokelau HIES contains information about participation in fisheries. The report of the survey (NSO 2016) indicates that 200 Tokelau households (80% of all households) participate in fisheries. This is an apparent decline from a survey carried out by SPC in 2003 in which 99.3% of all households reported participation in fisheries (Chapman et al. 2005).
Full chapter section in Benefish Study 4 →
26.6 Fish consumption
Some of the historical studies of fishery resource consumption in Tokelau are: • Gillett and Preston (1997) estimate that production from coastal fisheries in Tokelau in the early 1990s equated to an annual per capita fish supply of 119.4 kg (whole fish equivalent). • Passfield (1998) indicates that the population of Fakaofo consumes an estimated average of 380 g of seafood per person per day.
Full chapter section in Benefish Study 4 →
Tokelau — country resources
Direct access to country-specific chapters, regional report cards and economic studies.