European fishing industry body Europêche has called upon the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to reinforce surveillance, monitoring and control measures to support the better management of tropical tunas.
With ICCAT’s 24th annual meeting, being held in Cairo, Egypt, 13-20 November 2023, Europêche advised that bigeye tuna catches in ICCAT have decreased in recent years and are now close to the current recommended total allowable catch (TAC) of 62,000 tonnes. The organisation added that according to ICCAT’s Scientific Committee (Standing Committee on Research and Statistics or SCRS), there is room for an increase in catch and said this increase would give the opportunity to attribute additional catch limits to developing countries.
“In the last few years, the European purse seine fleet has contributed its fair share to significantly reducing fishing effort. We hope this will be reflected in the upcoming quota allocation negotiation, not to add additional burden to vessels under [the] EU flag,” Europêche Tuna Group Director Anne-France Mattlet said.
Europêche highlighted that proposals on the table at ICCAT also include at-sea transhipment limitations and the strengthening of the regional observer programme, which are both supported by the EU fleet.
ICCAT will also debate controversial FAD measures, it said.
“Implementing a clear calendar towards FAD full biodegradability, based on the same model that IATTC, is a very good initiative, which we support. However, any other new technical measure on FADs, which are already closely managed, would add unnecessary burden to the European purse seine fleet, which scrupulously applies all EU control rules, including VMS, logbook transmission and catches traceability, and which observer coverage is of 100%,” Mattlet said.
She continued: “First, a minimum level playing field must be achieved with other fleets, including non-European tuna purse seiners. For now, even the total number of purse seiners in operation is not clear and the whereabouts of many vessels, mainly tuna longliners, are unknown. ICCAT should progressively move to step up monitoring of the number of vessels, regional VMS, and then think about other types of registries that refer to devices used by vessels.”
