The 20th Annual Meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), hosted by the EU in La Réunion, concluded with agreements on a number of new management measures for the region’s tuna fisheries.
Overall, the EU has welcomed the outcome of the meeting, in particular the adoption of several of its proposals, such as a pilot project for a regional observer scheme, the implementation of electronic Port State measures, an incentive scheme for better catch data reporting (“no-data no-fish” principle), according to a statement released by the European Commission (EC).
These measures should help to improve the enforcement of IOTC measures and hence efficiency of the organization, said the EC. The EU was also instrumental to ensure that the recommendations of the second performance review of IOTC, including its reform, were endorsed and will be followed-up through a Working Group.
However, the Commission said the EU was hoping for a more ambitious outcome on the conservation of yellowfin tuna, one of the main IOTC stocks, where the main fishing fleets involved in this fishery could contribute to the reduction of catches for the next year with close monitoring by the Scientific Committee. Purse seiners will reduce their catches by 15 percent, fish aggregating devices (FADs) will be reduced from 550 to 425 and the number of supply vessels will be also reduced, gillnetters will reduce catches by 10 percent, longliners also 10 percent and coastal non-artisanal fleets by 5 percent.
The adoption of harvest control rules (HCRs) for skipjack were also welcomed by the EU, but the statement said it regrets that it was not possible to adopt conservation measures on some overfished neritic tunas and billfish, as proposed by the EU, due to the resistance of some contracting parties involved in these fisheries.
“The EU regrets as well that compliance by IOTC parties does not show major improvements and that no progress could be made on the selection of the Executive Secretary in times where the Secretariat needs to address new challenges in terms of science, capacity building for developing states and compliance,” concluded the statement.
