A recent ‘tuna workshop’ is set to help coastal states ensure the effective management of the shared tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Partners of the Common Oceans Tuna Project, including IATTC, FAO, WWF and ISSF, joined Representatives from Eastern Pacific Ocean countries that are members of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission in Panama for a discussion on aspects of sustainable tuna fisheries management with world experts in tuna fisheries.
IATTC members have started a new process to implement the precautionary approach through the adoption of harvest strategies, which provide a clear pre-agreed decision framework about what actions to take the if stocks are declining or need rebuilding or if fishing mortality is excessive.
The ideas presented during the workshop will help coastal states representatives to become more familiar with the principles behind harvest strategies and, are expected to empower coastal states representatives to meaningfully engage in the process of development of the strategies for key stocks under IATTC management.
“These types of initiatives are very important, as they instruct us on a new approach to fisheries management, especially for tuna fisheries that, because of their highly migratory nature, depend on the cooperation among multiple states for a proper management,” said Alvin Delgado, Commissioner of Venezuela.
“Particularly for the case of IATTC, that in 2016 will adopt new conservation and management measures for 2017 and beyond, to introduce a new approach will be very useful,” he added.
The workshop was part of the global project Common Oceans: Sustainable Management of Tuna Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ), partially funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), coordinated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and with WWF leading a number of the project outputs.
