Results of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) meeting this week will play a critical role in setting catch limits for struggling Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks.
ICCAT scientists in Madrid this week are currently reviewing the status of bluefin populations in the Western and Eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea and will use the results to recommend catch limits at the organization’s annual meeting in November in Paris.
Vocal critics like the Pew Environmental Group argue that the numbers will most likely be too high to help the populations recover.
In an e-mail sent to the media, the conservation group decried the fact that in March of this year, delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to prohibit all international commercial trade of the species.
In denying the iconic species CITES Appendix I protection, several governments claimed that the responsibility for its future rests with ICCAT.
“Those same governments committed to taking strong, meaningful action at the ICCAT meeting just a few months away,” the group stated. “Whether those governments stay true to their word and implement meaning conservation measures to help protect bluefin tuna is anyone’s guess.”
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