This year’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) annual meeting, held in Marrakesh, concluded with an agreement reached on an increased catch allocation for eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin, together with new management measures for swordfish and albacore fisheries.
Based on scientific advice that recognized an improvement in the bluefin stocks, ICCAT agreed to a gradual increase in the total allowable catch (TAC) that will reach a maximum of 36,000 metric tons (MT) in 2020 by rising 4,000 MT to 28,200 MT next year and 32,240 MT in 2019.
For northern albacore, for the first time in ICCAT history, harvest control rules (HCRs) were adopted, while the TAC was increased by 20 percent. The association also adopted measures to freeze the fishing effort on the Mediterranean albacore stock until better information on its situation becomes available.
Finally, ICCAT adopted recommendations reducing TACs for northern and southern Atlantic swordfish.
In terms of tropical tunas, ICCAT did not adopt any specific measures this year but decided to implement a pro-rata reduction of the TACs for bigeye and yellowfin tuna, for which overfishing took place in 2016. An extensive review of the existing management measures was proposed for 2018.
ICCAT was able to adopt measures aimed at protecting sharks in the north Atlantic. Specifically, measures were adopted for northern shortfin mako that aim to reduce the current fishing mortality and to lay the ground for the adoption of more ambitious measures in 2019.
The next annual meeting of ICCAT is expected to be held from 12 to 20 November 2018 in Croatia.
