Brussels, 14/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 8 March, the European Commission adopted a proposal updating and simplifying conservation measures for certain stocks of highly migratory species, like tuna, swordfish or marlin. This proposal gathers into one single regulation the technical measures adopted by regional fisheries organisations responsible for tuna fisheries. These organisations are the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), of which the Community has been a member since 14 November 1997, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), of which the Community is a member since 18 September 1995, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), which the Community has applied to join, and the Western and Central Pacific Ocean Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), of which the Community has been a member since 25 January 2005. Some of the recommendations of these regional fisheries organisations have been transposed into Community law (1991 regulation, modified in 2004). Some updates are necessary.
Within the area relevant to ICCAT the proposal provides inter alia for restrictions on the use of certain types of vessels and gears (fishing ban, from 1st to 30 November, on bigeye tuna by purse seiners and pole-and-line vessels; ban, from 16 July to 15 August, on fishing for bluefin tuna with encircling nets in the Mediterranean Sea); minimum sizes (6.4kg or 70cm for bluefin tuna caught in the East Atlantic Ocean, 10kg or 80cm for Mediterranean bluefin tuna and 25kg or 125cm for Atlantic swordfish); protection for species not targeted (release of live sharks and sea turtles captured accidentally).
The proposal also takes account of the international dolphin conservation programme in the waters of the Eastern Pacific. Only those Community vessels which operate within the conditions set by this international agreement are authorised to encircle schools or groups of dolphin with purse seines when fishing for yellowfin tuna. In Western and Central Pacific waters, countries must take measures to reduce to the minimum waste, discards, catches taken by lost or abandoned gear, pollution from fishing vessels, catches of fish and animal species not targeted and repercussions for related or dependent species, in particular species threatened with extinction.