Brussels, 16/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - After 10 days of intense negotiations, the contracting parties of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) reached a compromise in Recife, in the north-east of Brazil, on Sunday 15 November on bluefin tuna catches in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic. The total allowable catch (TAC) for this endangered species will be reduced by roughly 40% between 2009 and 2010, and the door has been left open for a closure of the fishery if news next year on the state of stocks is bad.
Bluefin tuna fishermen and sushi manufacturers have done relatively well in the deal, with environmentalist pressure for a halt to this fishery never having been as strong. With the adoption by consensus of a proposal tabled by the EU, the European Commission says in a press release issued on Monday 16 November, the TAC for all ICCAT members will be 13,500 tonnes in 2010, with some 7,290 tonnes for EU countries. The 2009 TAC was 22,000 tonnes, with 11,906 tonnes for the EU member states. Fishing possibilities will, then, be reduced by 38.6% between 2009 and 2010.
The other changes made to the management of bluefin tuna stocks are: - the fishing season for purse seiners will be reduced from two to one month, from 15 May to 15 June, with no possibility of extension to the season because of bad weather (the bad weather derogation has, therefore, been abandoned); - the EU has asked the other contracting parties to follow its lead in cutting fleet capacity by 50% by 2011; - the option of suspending fishing bluefin tuna remains open if new scientific assessments show that there is a threat of the collapse of the species in 2010. (L.C./transl.fl/rt)
Environmental organisations fear disappearance of bluefin tuna
Susan Lieberman, Director of International Policy at the Pew Environmental Group, felt the 40% reduction in bluefin tuna catches was not enough. She was critical that ICCAT had been influenced by the short-term interests of the fishing sector and said that “only a zero catch limit” would have maximized the chances that Atlantic bluefin tuna could recover.
Other environmental organisations would have liked that, at least, quotas were reduced to 8,000 tonnes to give a 50% chance of seeing stocks increase. Raül Romeva i Rueda (Greens/EFA, Spain), who was present at the ICCAT meeting, said in a press release that the EU delegation “deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms for contributing to take ICCAT to the moral low ground”. After extended secret negotiations, the EU tabled a proposal for a TAC of 13,500 tonnes as a “fait accompli”, Romeva regretted. He opined that, even with the closure of the fishery, it was not certain the stock could fully recover. Most delegations behaved like children, blaming their neighbours and not willing to accept they had made mistakes, said Romeva, who is deputy chairman of the European Parliament fisheries committee, and he went on, “Management of bluefin tuna has been an international disgrace”.
WWF says that the survival of bluefin tuna will now depend on the plan to ban trade in this fish, to be discussed at CITES (the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in March 2010. Monaco's proposal that bluefin tuna be included in CITES appendix 1 has, however, been rejected by those EU countries which fish this species (see EUROPE 9982). The outcome of the ICCAT meeting is “unacceptable” in the opinion of Sergi Tudela of WWF, who said that “this reduction of allowable catch is not based on any particular scientific advice - it is just an arbitrary political measure and only for one year”.
WWF is very unhappy with the decision taken by ICCAT to allow Morocco to continue to use driftnets to catch swordfish in the Mediterranean for a further two years. These nets, known widely as “walls of death”, kill 4,000 dolphins and 25,000 sharks in Mediterranean waters every year, WWF says.
Pew Environmental Group regrets, too, the “disappointing” measures taken by ICCAT to protect sharks. ICCAT decided to ban only catches and landing of big-eye thresher shark, but Mexico was given the right to catch 110 of these vulnerable sharks next year. (L.C./transl.rt)