Posted on 27 November
2010
Paris, France - "Wilfully blind"
members of the International Commission
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
have not given Mediterranean bluefin tuna
any real chance to recover, WWF said as
the commission's annual meeting closed in
Paris with only marginal cuts to catch levels.
With more than four
decades of failure behind it protecting
the bluefin fisheries under its care, ICCAT
today agreed to trim catch quotas by only
600 tonnes compared to the more than 6,000
tonnes needed to just even the odds of saving
the species.
“Greed and mismanagement
have taken priority over sustainability
and common sense at this ICCAT meeting when
it comes to Atlantic bluefin. This measly
quota reduction is insufficient to ensure
the recovery of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean
Sea,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of WWF
Mediterrean’s Fisheries Programme.
Key countries backed
away from commitments to ensure a sustainably
managed fishery, leaving only one brighter
spot - the meeting declined to rubberstamp
another amnesty to fishing nations required
under ICCAT rules to pay back past overfishing
against future catches.
"Doha commitment"
promises come to nothing
The so-called "Doha
commitments" were made by key ICCAT
members - the EU, Japan, Norway, the U.S.
and Canada - after the proposal to introduce
the highest level of trade restrictions
for bluefin tuna at the March meeting of
the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES) was voted down.
The outcome of the Paris
meeting recalls ICCAT's action in the 11000s,
where promises and concessions on catches
were made in the face of threats to refer
the collapsing western Atlantic bluefin
tuna to CITES, only to be followed by a
hard line on reducing catches once the danger
of referral to CITES had passed.
Under pressure from
the Mediterranean fishing industry and countries
benefiting from the highly profitable trade
of the sushi favourite red-fleshed bluefin
tuna, ICCAT today also held back other efforts
to regulate the fishery in the Mediterranean,
where the eastern Atlantic population of
bluefin tuna migrates to spawn.
“After years of observing
ICCAT and countless opportunities to do
the right thing, it is clear to us that
the commission’s interests lie not in the
sustainable harvesting of bluefin tuna but
in pandering to short-term business interests,"
Dr Tudela said. "There have been no
effective measures implemented here to deal
with widespread illegal and unreported fishing
for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean.”
Recent investigations
have shown the high levels of non-compliance
and rule-bending still rife across the Mediterranean
bluefin tuna fishery. While there are observers
on vessels there is a lot of guess work
involved, and control measures were not
significantly improved at the Paris ICCAT
meeting.
“ICCAT members are wilfully
blind to the fact that failing to reduce
fishing quotas to precautionary levels recommended
by science will logically result in the
lack of recovery of the species. Before
this meeting WWF asked whether ICCAT wants
to remain ineffective or help save bluefin
tuna. The answer is becoming all too clear,”
said Tudela.
WWF welcomed the decision
to finally respect the so-called payback
regulations, meaning that countries which
have overfished would see their quotas reduced
accordingly in future to compensate. This
application of fishing rules is crucial
in Europe at a time when the EU is reforming
its common fisheries policy and has pledged
to follow science and slash illegal fishing.
In 2007 France fished
well over 10,000 tonnes, while in 2011 its
quota will be less than 1,000 after payback.
France’s 2011 quota should be allocated
among artisanal fleets rather than the industrial
purse seine vessels that are responsible
for the massive overfishing in the recent
past.
WWF is urging that capacity
reduction measures put in place today also
focus on cutting purse seiners. The new
rules dictate that within three years boat
capacity in the Mediterranean – currently
far too high – should be aligned with fishing
quotas. While current figures for boat numbers
underestimate real capacity, this is a positive
move.
Coming into the meeting
ICCAT’s chairman Dr Fabio Hazin talked of
“the obligation to respect science” and
expressed “confidence and consequent optimism”
that countries would “act responsibly and
adopt measures needed to ensure sustainability”
of fish stocks. But ICCAT members countries
have fallen short of this expectation.
“Everyone talked of
respecting science and wanting to adopt
measures to ensure recovery of bluefin tuna
in the Mediterranean, but the measures adopted
today are highly risky given the dire status
of bluefin tuna stocks and all the blanks
and unknowns in the current data gathering
and analysis,” said Dr Tudela of WWF.
ICCAT has for years
failed to implement recovery and sustainable
management of the bluefin tuna fishery in
the Mediterranean Sea.
WWF, an observer at
the negotiations during the ICCAT meeting,
was calling on governments to end rule-bending
and impunity for illegal fishing, and urging
the inter-governmental body to implement
a science-based management plan that will
allow the Atlantic bluefin tuna to recover.
WWF was also calling
for the establishment of no-fishing sanctuaries
in the six identified spawning grounds in
the Mediterranean Sea, but this suggestion
was removed entirely from the agenda.
A proposal to ban international
trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna through a
listing on the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was
defeated in Doha, Qatar last March. But
the main harvesting and consuming countries
of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna, the EU
and Japan – as well as Norway, Canada and
the U.S. – promised to lead in getting sustainable
and science-based fisheries management measures
adopted at this year’s ICCAT meeting.
Japan in particular
opposed the CITES listing and stressed that
ICCAT was the place to sustainably manage
Atlantic bluefin tuna and that countries
would show the world ICCAT is capable of
ensuring the recovery of the species.
“WWF is disappointed
the Doha commitments were not respected
here in Paris. We had high hopes that Japan
especially would take leadership at this
ICCAT meeting in putting in place sustainable
and precautionary management measures for
bluefin tuna as well as enforcing strict
compliance,” said Dr Aiko Yamauchi, Fisheries
Officer at WWF-Japan. “The results fall
short of our high expectations, in spite
of fresh evidence of widespread rule-breaking
again this year. We are urging Japan to
strictly enforce compliance rules.”
ICCAT’s scientists will
next assess bluefin tuna stocks in the East
Atlantic in 2012, when they vow to address
the uncertainties in data to ensure recommendations
are clearer. Data quality must improve but
also the methodologies employed to analyse
figures. WWF will work with scientists to
optimise the process during the next two
years.
