Greenpeace: ICCAT proves itself incapable of saving bluefin tuna
Just weeks away from a crucial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) the fisheries management organisation mandated to protect the species has proved it is incapable of doing so, says Greenpeace.
At the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)’s technical compliance meeting which ended last week, the Secretariat informed delegates that only 43% of catch reports adhere to ICCAT’s much lauded report catch documentation scheme, designed to combat Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing. More than six months after the end of last year’s fishing season, only 8,614 tonnes of bluefin tuna out of a total catch of over 19,000 tonnes in 2009 has been reported under the new rules. Within the EU only 3,012 tonnes were reported compared to a total catch of 11,059 tonnes.
“ICCAT has yet again proved why it cannot be trusted to manage bluefin tuna,” said Sebastian Losada, Greenpeace International oceans campaigner, from the meeting. “The widely publicised catch documentation scheme is being used by many nations as an argument against listing bluefin under CITES, yet these figures prove that it is a travesty – more than half of the catch is not reported correctly, and nobody is bothering to do anything about it.”
In 2008, ICCAT’s own scientists found that the current bluefin tuna reproductive population is less than 15 per cent of what it was before fishing began. Greenpeace urges governments attending the upcoming CITES meeting to give bluefin tuna a fighting chance by voting to list it on Appendix I under CITES – i.e. a full international trade ban, until stocks recover and ICCAT has shown it is capable of managing the fishery properly.
The CITES meeting will take place in Doha, Qatar between March 13 and 25.
