The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has adopted a management procedure for Atlantic swordfish, but another proposal to strengthen the commission’s ban on shark finning was derailed by Japan and China.
ICCAT held its annual meeting from 11 to 18 November and had already completed a management strategy evaluation for North Atlantic swordfish. NGOs like The Pew Charitable Trusts pushed for the ICCAT – a regional fishery management organization (RFMO) – to adopt the strategy to move away from annual quota negotiations toward an automated system that makes management decisions less political and more science-based.
Esther Wozniak, a manager on Pew’s international fisheries team working in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific fisheries, said ICCAT’s adoption of a management procedure for swordfish is an important milestone in the RFMO’s efforts to modernize fisheries management.
“Thanks to leadership over many years from Canada, the United States, and the European Union, ICCAT has demonstrated that long-term, sustainable visions for healthy fisheries can extend across all commercial fish populations,” Wozniak said in a release.
The swordfish management procedure is not the first ICCAT has adopted. ICCAT set a harvest strategy for Atlantic bluefin in 2022, which according to Wozniak has already streamlined quota negotiations and management for the species.
Another key portion of the new management procedure is the adoption of a climate change test which will help tailor how ICCAT addresses the fishery as the stock shifts.
“Not only will this be ICCAT’s first non-tuna species under a management procedure; it is the first to consider the future impacts of climate change when determining catch limits,” Wozniak said. “This fishery is worth millions of dollars each year and is important to coastal communities around the north Atlantic. This decision sets the stage for continued efforts to future-proof ICCAT species health, despite a warming ocean.”
As ICCAT saw success in adopting a new management procedure for swordfish, a separate push to tighten rules and strengthen ICCAT’s shark-finning ban was derailed ...
