The tuna fishing industry, represented by Europêche called on the European Union and the other members of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) on Friday 12 February to “stop turning a blind eye to the problem of large-scale pelagic driftnets”.
The international community and the EU have long since adopted a global moratorium on large-scale pelagic driftnets used to catch migratory species such as tuna.
“However, their use is still too widespread, particularly in the Indian Ocean, where they are today responsible for around 20% of total yellowfin tuna catches and high levels of by-catches of threatened and protected species such as sharks, marine mammals and turtles”, explains Europêche in a press release.
This organisation hopes that at the next IOTC meeting, the parties will decide to put an end to these practices.
Some third countries have continued to use these nets even though they are banned and “these countries have never been penalised”, Europêche criticises.
The IOTC will hold a special session from 7 to 12 March, in particular on the subject of the recovery of the yellowfin tuna stock.
Link to the Europêche press release: http://bit.ly/2NgORgC (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)