Yahoo News 18 Nov 07;
An international commission designed to protect bluefin tuna stocks has effectively increased the fishing quota for 2008 from what was already an "unsustainable" level, Greenpeace said Sunday.
"Countries are approving a bigger quota for a species that is on the verge of collapse instead of acting immediately to save it," said Sebastian Losada, Greenpeace Spain's Oceans Campaigner.
The environmental pressure group said the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), held in Turkeyhad approved a nearly 1,000-tonne increase in the 2008 catch.
Organisers issued no statement on the conclusions of the meeting -- attended by a Greenpeace delegation -- in the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
The increases will add to an "already unsustainable quota that will again in 2008 be around 29,500 tonnes," Losada said.
Greenpeace said the 45-member ICCAT agreed to allow Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia to fish an additional 691 tonnes in 2008, 771 tonnes in 2009 and 985 tonnes in 2010 because their national quotas were not met in previous years.
South Korea, meanwhile, could catch an additional 300 tonnes next year, it said.
The 2008 quota officially remained at 28,500 tonnes compared to 29,500 tonnes in 2007, but the additional allowances effectively brought it up to 2007 levels, Greenpeace said.
The quotas were established under a 15-year recovery plan adopted in 2006 that aims to cut the total hunt of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean by 20 percent by 2010.
Tuna fishing is an increasingly lucrative industry, particularly for developing economies that export to Japan, which consumes a quarter of the world's tuna.
Scientific research released in France in September showed that 50,000 tonnes of the fish were being pulled out of Mediterranean waters annually, far above the official quota and the 15,000-16,000 sustainable rate.
In Brussels, the European Commission said that ICCAT had also adopted at the Turkey meeting a new plan to trace all tuna catches down the market in a bid to eliminate illegal fishing and underreporting.
"It will make life more difficult for those who want to cheat the rules," Commission spokeswoman Mirreille Thom said.
ICCAT will also convene a meeting in Tokyo in March to see how better coordination between those involved in the catch and marketing, she added.
The EU also agreed a pay-back scheme for the EU after admitting to fishing around 20,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna this year above its allocated quota of 16,779.5 tonnes.
The regime will "see the EU pay back 100 percent of this year's quota overshoot in three equal annual instalments starting in 2009," the European Commision said in a statement.
In September, the EU, which has the largest quota in the ICCAT, banned bluefin tuna fishing in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean for the rest of the year because quotas for 2007 had already been exhausted.
Under the recovery plan, the EU has a quota of 16,210.7 tonnes for 2008.
Delegates at the Antalya meeting agreed to continue implementing the recovery plan for another year with a full review planned for early 2008, the European Commission said.
"If, in 2008, the scientists tell us that the plan is not working, then we must consider every option which might help prevent the collapse of this historic fishery," European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said.
NGOs Say Current Quotas Put Tuna Stocks at Risk
PlanetArk 20 Nov 07;
MADRID - Stocks of the Mediterranean's giant bluefin tuna face collapse because fishing countries failed to cut quotas at an international conference last week, campaigners said on Monday.
Over-fishing to supply the sushi trade has decimated stocks of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean over the last decade. Campaign groups and some countries, led by the United States, have said only a complete fishing ban for up to five years can reverse the decline.
But at its 10-day meeting in Antalya, Turkey, the body charged with regulating bluefin catches -- the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) -- broadly maintained the catch limit, a quota even its own scientists say is unsustainable.
"After this latest failure to act, our expectation is that the fishery will collapse," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Francois Provost told Reuters.
Though ICCAT, dominated by the European Union's voting bloc, cut its 2008 quota by 1,000 tonnes to 28,500, the catch limit for next year's April-July season will rise slightly for some countries that did not fill their quotas in recent years so they can fish more.
ICCAT's own scientists have said stocks will only recover if the quota is cut to 15,000 tonnes.
"ICCAT has proved itself to be entirely incompetent and has failed again in its duty to sustainably manage our common marine resources," said Sergi Tudela, head of fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
Greenpeace estimates under-reporting, fishing past the end of the season, and the illegal use of spotter planes took this year's catch to 45,000 tonnes.
Spain, a country environment group WWF says has under-reported its bluefin catch, said a new ICCAT plan to trace tuna from fishing boat to final destination would help stamp out illegal fishing and under-reporting.
The half-tonne fish, which has been hunted since the time of the Phoenicians 3,000 years ago, migrates thousands of kilometres and can swim in excess of 70 km (43 miles) an hour. (Reporting by Ben Harding; Editing by Golnar Motevalli)
'No cuts' for Mediterranean tuna
Richard Black, BBC News 19 Nov 07
Catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea will not be cut, despite evidence that fishermen caught more than they were allowed in 2007.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (Iccat) made the decision during its annual meeting, held this year in Turkey.
Environment groups described the decision as a "shocking failure".
EU fleets caught about 4,000 tonnes above their 2007 quotas; seven nations face legal action as as result.
The US and Canadian governments, supported by environmental groups, proposed a moratorium on bluefin catches to allow stocks time to recover.
Instead, Iccat allowed requests for small quota increases from a number of countries including Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.
These decisions brought ringing condemnation from environmental groups.
"Iccat has proved itself to be entirely incompetent, and has failed again in its duty to sustainably manage our common marine resource," thundered WWF Mediterranean's head of fisheries Sergei Tudela.
Greenpeace was equally dismissive. "The northern bluefin is on the road to extinction, and this meeting has not even reduced the speed limit," said the organisation's oceans campaigner for Spain, Sebastian Losada.
Still on track
For the most part, Iccat commissioners decided to stick with recommendations made at the organisation's 2006 meeting which initiated a "multi-annual recovery plan" for the Atlantic bluefin.
The plan included cuts in quotas and in the length of fishing seasons that were substantially less radical that Iccat's scientific advisors had recommended.
Iccat says there has not been enough time to determine whether the measures are working, and will review them at next year's annual meeting.
"The plan is still going on - our recommendations were that there should be no revision of the plan," Iccat's executive director Driss Meski told BBC News.
The plan included measures aimed at cutting down on illegal, unrestricted and unreported (IUU) fishing, which scientists believe has added as much as 50% to official catch quotas in recent years.
Clearly the new emphasis on sticking to quotas has not had the desired impact, with the European Commission closing its bluefin fishery earlier in the year than planned and initiating legal action against seven EU member states for exceeding their quotas.
Collectively, the EU came in about 4,000 tonnes over its quota of 16,779.55 tonnes.
The EU will "repay" this excess by catching less than its quota in the three seasons from 2009.
Delegates did agree to introduce a new system of tracking tuna from the net (or the hook) to the plate, which they hope will reduce illegal fishing.
There is also to be a meeting in Japan early next year at which governments and companies involved can co-ordinate attempts to regulate bluefin catches more effectively.
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