WWF welcomes the strong potential of the European Commission’s negotiating mandate for this month’s meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Marrakech Morocco, announced last week following EU Fisheries Council discussions in Luxembourg.
The European Commission has agreed a negotiating mandate that includes “(…) taking into account scientific advice, balancing capacity of fishing fleets and tuna farms with the availability of the resource, revising technical measures such as shortening the fishing season (…), and pushing for a stronger control system for the whole fishery”.
Speaking on the possibility of ICCAT opting for a moratorium, current President of the EU Fisheries Council, France’s Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier, added at a press conference last week that “the mandate of the (European) Commission adopted today does not exclude this scenario”.
Meanwhile, European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said: “time is running out to save the bluefin tuna stock from collapse”, indicating that the EU will now be “able to champion bold and decisive measures” at ICCAT in November.
WWF asks the European Commission – and all ICCAT Contracting Parties – to follow closely the advice urged in last September's resolution of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where an overwhelming majority of international governments and representatives voted in favour of a suspension of this beleaguered fishery – to be followed by vastly improved management and control measures.
“The Mediterranean bluefin fishery must be closed by ICCAT in November – pending the imposition of proper controls, a reduction in fishing capacity, and the effective implementation of a scientifically based recovery plan,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. “The international community has in the IUCN resolution already shown its consensus that this is the right thing – indeed, the only thing – to save tuna in the Mediterranean.”
In their latest stock assessment published in October, ICCAT scientists gave their strongest yet indictment of the fishery – now dwindling at only a third of its spawning biomass compared to 30 years ago – and reported they have shown a moratorium would help save the species from collapse.
“After suspending all fishing activity, the Mediterranean bluefin fishery should only be reopened on a strict case-by-case basis, as and when countries have proved clearly that they have adopted and are ready to apply effective control and management measures,” added Tudela.
“There are many rule-breakers in this multi-million euro fishery, but if we don’t clamp down with an iron fist on the overfishing there will soon be no fishery to squabble about at all.”
