TURKEY: The Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) offers no changes in fishing quotas for the endangered bluefin tuna

The Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) offers no changes in fishing quotas for the endangered bluefin tuna. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) offered no change in fishing quotas for the endangered bluefin tuna on Sunday (November 18). Member countries gathered in the southern Turkish city of Antalya for week-long discussion about the overfishing of the tuna. ICCAT is the international body charged with regulating tuna catches in the Mediterranean and North East Atlantic by setting quotas for all member countries. A year ago, ICCAT representatives from 42 member governments agreed to a "multi-annual recovery plan" by lowering quotas and curtailing the fishing season. Mechanisms were also established to track fish and to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which according to ICCAT's scientists had been adding as much as 50 percent each year to the amount extracted legally from the seas. However, in October 2007, France and Italy faced reduced quotas for bluefin tuna for next year as punishment for overfishing. Both countries netted more than their agreed share of the fish, meaning the European Union as a whole exceeded its allowance and forced the European Commission to ban bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic for the rest of 2007. Both Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as well as U.S. Fisheries Service called for an emergency moratorium to suspend all catches for 3-5 years to save tuna stocks from commercial extinction. However, ICCAT members decided there would be no change to the current project. "We discussed some possible changes to the programme, the governing programme we adopted last year. But we decided not to change the current plan this year. That was the conclusion, yes," said the head of the Japanese delegation Masa Miyahara. "Some decisive action to ensure the recovery of the stock. But in that sense the desire of the meeting is not satisfactory. But at least we can start some work with our stake holders. Then we can stop some sort of leak from the current recovery project. Illegal activities and so on. And I think next fishing season we will have more assurance regulations will be respected fully," Masa Miyahara added. Greenpeace demonstrators gathered at a nearby beach to protest against ICCAT's decision. Protesters placed Tuna heads on plates along the beach and held signs which read "Time and tuna running out." Bluefin tuna populations have declined alarmingly over recent decades, with their popularity in sushi and sashimi dishes driving demand. In Japan, a single fish can command prices of up to 100,000 U.S. dollars (USD). "As Greenpeace has demanded before, we understand the fishery is totally out of control. There is no capacity by member states that they place on in this fishery to control and to guarantee that the existing rules are applied. And the situation that we find is that this population may well become commercially extinct in the coming years," said Sebastian Losada, Head of Greenpeace in Spain. Unlike most tunas, bluefin grow slowly and matures late, making them vulnerable to intensive trawling. Among the ocean's top predators and fastest swimmers, a bluefin tuna can live for at least 15 years, and even as long as 30 years. For 2007, EU fleets were allocated a quota of some 16,780 tonnes in the Mediterranean within the overall ICCAT quota of 29,500 tonnes. Other countries that trawl these waters for bluefin tuna include Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Japan. However, experts say wide-scale illegal fishing takes the amount of bluefin tuna actually caught in the Mediterranean to at least 50,000 tonnes.

ITN Source | November 18, 2007

Tags:. .oceans. .italy. .decades. .eastern. .commission