Damanaki urges ICCAT to stay course on bluefin

Europe's top fisheries official praised the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at the commission's annual meeting in Cape Town, South Africa this week for its efforts to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna, but urged ICCAT to keep the momentum going.

"The stakes are still high and we still need the same rigor — on tuna as well as on other species," Maria Damanaki, European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, told ICCAT in a speech on 21 November.

Damanaki praised ICCAT for promoting improved scientific data, recovery plans and other measures, and said the efforts are beginning to show in the stocks.

"Bluefin tuna is officially recovering," Damanaki said. "This emblematic stock, utterly overfished and almost doomed in 2010, is likely to continue towards recovery."

But Damanaki urged caution, warning ICCAT not to raise quotas just yet.

"For Atlantic bluefin tuna, we were able to grant a slightly higher total allowable catch (TAC) last year," she said. "Let us make sure the recovery is quantifiable before we rush into another peak."

Damanaki called for continued monitoring of the stocks, using new methods of electronic traceability to do so.

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