Brussels, 16/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has welcomed the adoption, on 12 December, of a three-year management plan for yellowfin and bigeye tuna by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). Key elements of the plan are a 30% reduction over three years in catches of bigeye tuna, and a two-month prohibition on fishing with floating platforms which are used to attract fish (with the ban to be extended to three months in 2010).
Though these measures do not go as far as the European Union had wanted, they represent a step in the right direction, said European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg. The EU had sought an immediate reduction of 30% in catches of bigeye tuna, and a three-month total closure of the purse seine fishery on both species.
In addition to the plan for tropical tuna, the WCPFC also adopted a number of other measures during the course of the meeting, including: - a limit on capacity in the swordfish fishery to prevent the stock becoming overexploited; - adoption of a list of IUU vessels (vessels engaged in illegal, unrecorded and unregulated fisheries); - measures to introduce a centralised satellite-based vessel monitoring system (VMS) from 1 April 2009; - new measures for the protection of sharks and sea turtles; - the gradual transfer of fishing capacity from developed states to developing states (the aim of this long-term plan, which runs until 2018, is to ensure that small island development states in the Pacific get a greater share of the fishery. (L.C./transl.rt)