The 52 members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) failed to reach agreement on a plan to restore endangered bigeye tuna stocks on Monday 19 November in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
“Despite the wave of cooperation that has significantly improved discussions for a new conservation and management plan for tropical tunas”, ICCAT “has not been able to reach consensus and the annual catch limits for bigeye tuna will continue to apply until 2019 inclusive”, says the regional fisheries organisation. In addition, it decided to postpone the current measures for tropical tunas and blue and white marlin stocks, and to work on developing new plans acceptable to all before the ICCAT meeting in 2019.
The European Union regretted the lack of compromise on bigeye tuna. The European Commission had proposed to subject countries whose fleets fish more than 500 tonnes per year to quotas until 2023 and to reduce fishing mortality among juveniles. It had also proposed to reduce the number of FADs (fish aggregating devices) per vessel and to strengthen controls on vessels.
Green light for bluefin tuna. ICCAT has reached agreement on a revised multiannual bluefin tuna management plan for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. It will be possible to fish 36,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna in 2020, whereas the quota was capped at 23,655 tonnes in 2017. “This is a higher quota than ever”, said the NGO Pew, which fears “a decline in the species in the near future”. WWF is also dismayed, reminding us that this increase is occurring at a time when the recovery of the stock is not confirmed. The distribution of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) by country has also changed, with the EU's share reduced from 59% to 54%, i.e. 15,850 t in 2018, 17,536 t in 2019 and 19,360 t in 2020. Finally, NGOs regret that the protection of the shortfin mako shark has not progressed one iota. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)