The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) on Friday urged regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) to take steps to address excess capacity in global tuna fisheries.
The organization is calling upon the RFMOs, member nations and the fishing industry to develop a global record of tuna fishing vessels with unique identifiers to limit the number of vessels.
ISSF points to the IHS-Fairplay administered International Maritime Organization numbering system (IMO number), which provides a mechanism and registry for the unique identification and registration of vessels. In 2010, ISSF adopted a conservation measure that tuna vessels of a size subject to listing on an RFMO-authorized vessel record an IMO number, register with IMO and thus receive an IMO number by 31 May.
“Despite the general consensus among scientists, regional bodies and many governments that excess fishing capacity exists in most of the tuna purse-seine fisheries and large-scale longline fisheries, several recent attempts to limit or even discuss management of capacity within the tuna RFMO context have failed,” said ISSF in a statement.
