The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has failed once again to act beyond the interests of a few tuna fishing and farming industries, warned Greenpeace at the end of the ICCAT annual meeting.
Again, Greenpeace said, it has approved recommendations which fail to ensure the recovery of Atlantic bluefin tuna, one of the most overexploited fisheries worldwide.
The organisation said that the latest available science shows that to have only a 50% chance of stocks recovering by 2023 then an annual eastern Atlantic catch limit of 8,000 tonnes would need to be imposed. Despite repeated calls for the closure this fishery, the European Community, Mediterranean fishing states and Japan forced a new catch level set at 13,500 tonnes, from the current 19,950t.
“Yet again, ICCAT has failed to give bluefin tuna any chance of recovery. It has also confirmed that fishing states are unable to enforce their own control measures or seriously address their fishing fleet’s overcapacity," said François Provost, Greenpeace International oceans campaigner. “A ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is now the only remaining chance to save the iconic fish from commercial extinction”.
Greenpeace said that ICCAT’s own scientists recently demonstrated that the current bluefin tuna reproductive population is less than 15 per cent of what it once was before fishing began – meaning Atlantic bluefin tuna meets the criteria for a such a trade ban under CITES Appendix I listing.
ICCAT member states also failed to agree any serious measures to protect depleted species of sharks, sea turtles and seabirds. Once more the only thing they could agree on is to “look at this important issue next year”.
Contrary to resolutions of the UN General Assembly, ICCAT members also allowed Morocco to keep using illegal driftnet pelagic gear until 2012. Such nets have been dubbed as “walls of death” and illegal Moroccan driftnets targeting swordfish for the European market are known to kill around 4,000 dolphins and 25,000 pelagic sharks annually in the Western Mediterranean Sea. This measure was strongly supported by the EU – represented in Recife by the European Commission, as well as the United States.
Greenpeace said that the extent of ICCAT’s failure and of other fisheries management organisations to act responsibly over marine resources can no longer be ignored. It drives the urgent need to move from the current fragmented management model towards an integrated governance system that is based on a precautionary ecosystem approach and specifically provides for the establishment of an effective network of large scale marine reserves on the high seas.
