Brussels, 09/04/2010 (Agence Europe) -Wednesday 7 April, the committee on fisheries of the European Parliament reached a compromise on a proposal establishing a Community programme to document bluefin tuna catches, in its adoption (by 19 votes in favour and one abstention), of the report by Raül Romeva I Rueda (Greens/EFA) Spain) on this dossier. The European Parliament will examine this report during its June plenary session (first reading).
The aim of the proposal is to transpose into Community law the decisions made last December by the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) on the creation of a catch documentation system of this kind. The many amendments approved by the MEPs aim to reinforce or clarify certain provisions.
Under the proposed regulation as amended by the MEPs, any batch of bluefin tuna must be accompanied by a breakdown of the catch, filled in at almost every stage of the conservation chain from the moment of catch, including landing, trans-shipment, caging, cultivation, import, export and re-export. This list must be validated at every stage by the authorities of the flag State, State of exploitation or State in which the set net is established, and will include a wide range of information: - on catches (name of vessel or net, flag State, quantities caught, place and method of catch); - on the exporter or seller; - on the trans-shipment (name of vessels, date, port, description of product, weight); - on farming (name, caging date, estimated quantities of fish); - on cultivation (date, number of fish, number of brands); - on the sale (description of the product, place and date of export, details of the exporting company).
In addition, the provisions include: - a ban on trans-shipment at sea, to avoid any duplicity over the origin of the bluefin tuna; - new restrictions on the time taken for the cultivation of caged fish; - specific instructions concerning the issue, filling-in and validation of the catch list.
If CITES had decided in March to suspend international sales of bluefin tuna, this regulation on the catch documentation programme would have lost a great deal of its purpose. Today, the regulation comes in addition to other measures (fishing opportunity volumes, minimum size for sale, fishing seasons) which aim to provide maximum protection for the stocks of a species whose state of depletion is well known. (L.C./transl.fl)