Brussels, 01/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On 30 May, the European Commission welcomed the results from the 20th Annual Meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) in La Réunion, France. It did, however, say that the compromise on reducing Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD) could have been more ambitious.
The EU admits that it was hoping for a more ambitious outcome on the conservation of yellowfin tuna, one of the main IOTC stocks. Purse seiners will reduce their catches by 15% percent in 2017, gillnetters will reduce catches by 10%, longliners also 10% and coastal non-artisanal fleets by 5%. Scientists have recommended a comprehensive reduction of 20% in yellowfin tuna catches. FAD will be reduced from 550 to 425, which will be a difficult compromise to reach. Spain did not want such a sharp reduction in this fishing gear. Many countries were advocating a sharper reduction in the number of FADs (in an effort to reach a figure of 300).
The European Commission also welcomed the adoption of several EU proposals (the EU hosted this IOTC meeting), such as a pilot project for a Regional Observer Scheme, the implementation of electronic Port State measures and an incentive scheme for better catch data reporting ('no-data no-fish' principle).
The Commission said that these measures should help to improve implementations of the measures ratified by this regional fisheries organisation.
The Commission also noted the adoption of rules on controlling catches of skipjack tuna but regrets that it was not possible to adopt conservation measures on some overfished Neritic tunas and Billfish, as proposed by the EU, due to the resistance of some Contracting parties involved in these fisheries. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)