The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) is preparing for its 89th meeting, taking place from 22 June to 3 July, where it will outline priorities for Eastern Pacific tuna fisheries.
Beginning with Harvest Control Rules (HCRs) and Reference Points, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is recommending the adoption of a more complete HCR that takes the limit reference points into account. These are a set of well-defined management actions to be taken in response to changes in stock status with respect to target and limit reference points. Unless there is a pre-agreed upon action plan for avoiding overfishing or for rebuilding an overfished stock, long negotiations lead to delayed action or inaction. Therefore, the adoption of HCRs is a key aspect of modern fisheries management, and is also a requirement of several eco-label certification programmes.
ISSF is also calling for the management of fleet capacity and closed vessel registries. It says the establishment of limited entry via a comprehensive closed vessel registry will help reduce the number of fishing vessels to an appropriate level.
Though the IATTC is the only tuna RFMO with a closed vessel registry, its current capacity is well in excess of resource productivity. In order to further progress the management of fishing capacity, the IATTC should consider implementing the recommendations from the 2014 Technical Experts Workshop on the Capacity of the Tuna-fishing Fleet in the EPO. ISSF also encourages the IATTC to consider the outcomes of the 2014 ISSF workshop on the transfer of fishing capacity from developed to developing countries in any regional capacity management scheme.
Elsewhere, ISSF says the time is ripe for a concerted global effort to gather and report to RFMOs data on Fish Aggregating Device (FADs) in order to better monitor FAD usage and to establish a sound basis for their management in every ocean region.
According to the “base-case” runs, the spawning biomass for the yellowfin and bigeye stocks is close to the MSY level but neither stock is being overfished. Pacific bluefin stock is highly depleted and fishing mortality exceeds all reasonable proxies for FMSY, according to 2014 assessments and projections from the ISC. Considering uncertainties in the assessments and likely increases in fishing capacity and floating object-directed effort, ISSF urges the IATTC to monitor the situation closely and be prepared to implement stronger measures in the future, should they become necessary.
ISSF adds that IATTC must improve its transparency regarding the levels of compliance, vessel monitoring systems (VMS) and IUU vessel lists. In addition, ISSF says improvements are needed to strengthen IATTC’s monitoring, control and surveillance tools, including its VMS and IUU Vessel List measures.
