Europêche claims its members are disappointed with the total allowed catch (TAC) set for tuna management in the Atlantic and adjacent seas.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) approved a lower than expected increase for bluefin tuna; 28,200t in 2018, 32,240t in 2019 and 36,000t in 2020.
Europêche said: “Particularly, concerning the TAC for 2018, the entire sector expected to reach 32,000t in view of the positive scientific data that reported the full recovery of this emblematic species.”
Unbalanced agreement
Likewise, Europêche believes that the EU has not been able to strike a balanced agreement since, besides not having achieved the desired TAC increase, ICCAT did modify the quota allocation scheme among the contracting parties to the detriment of EU operators.
According to Javier Garat, president of Europêche: “This change in the distribution system means that the rest of the countries will receive more quotas at the expense of the quotas of the Europeans. The European Commission has not been able to adequately defend the interests of the EU and its fishermen, demonstrating that their strategy has been wrong.”
According to Europêche, although Europe will have a quota of around 15,850 tonnes in 2018, its catches will decrease 2.4 percentage points. It said it is foreseeable that the reduction will be even more pronounced in 2019 and 2020, being a decrease of 5.2 and 6.3 respectively, in favour to third countries, such as Algeria, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt or Albania.
Europêche said the sector also fails to understand why, in light of the data presented by the scientific committee, ICCAT has decided not to replace the existing recovery plan with a management plan for Eastern Bluefin tuna.
However, there is a commitment to do so by 2019, it added.
