Mediterranean Fishing Nations Adopt Conservation

Mediterranean Fishing Nations Adopt Conservation





    
 
January 2007  - Nations whose fishing 
fleets work the waters of the Mediterranean Sea have agreed on 
a series of new measures aimed at conserving the region's 
dwindling fish populations. The delegates also adopted new, 
stricter rules for tuna fishing in the face of warnings that 
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is wiping out the 
world's tunas. 
The measures were adopted during the annual meeting of the UN 
Food and Agriculture Organization's General Fisheries 
Commission for the Mediterranean, GFCM. Held last week in 
Rome, the meeting was attended by 19 countries plus the 
European Community. 
One of the meeting's main outcomes was an agreement on the use 
of new, more selective types of netting in bottom trawls. 
Changes to the shape of the mesh holes will allow small 
juvenile fish that have not yet reproduced to escape capture 
and return to the wild to breed. 
Among the species that will benefit are red mullet and hake, 
popular with consumers and of economic importance but 
categorized as either fully exploited or overexploited by the 
Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. 
Fishing vessels tied up at Calpe, Spain (Photo courtesy Miro) 
The commission also agreed on a common set of benchmarks for 
measuring the capacity of fishing fleets in the region and 
assessing their impacts on shared fish stocks, the first time 
such a unified system has existed in the Mediterranean. 
"This is a milestone. We will now have a tool for getting a 
complete picture of what kind of fishing is going on in the 
entire area, and to finally be able to address the management 
of multispecies fisheries," said GFCM Secretary Alain Bonzon. 
"What's more, these new definitions of fishing effort will 
enable us to study and make recommendations specific to 
sub-sectors of the various fishing fleets, which will improve 
management overall," Bonzon said. 
Additionally, GFCM members signed off on new rules for tuna 
fishing, recently adopted by the International Commission for 
the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT, and forwarded to 
the GFCM. Both commissions share responsibility for managing 
migratory bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean region. 
This raises the number of countries who have agreed to abide 
by these ICCAT rules from 42 to 56. 
The newly adopted measures include a 15 year recovery plan for 
bluefin tuna starting in 2007 and running through 2022. 
The plan calls for six month off-seasons for specific types of 
boats. It bans the use of aircraft in spotting tuna, forbids 
the capture of tuna under 30 kilograms (66 pounds) except in 
certain specific circumstances, and requires better reporting 
of tuna catches. 
A 250 kilogram (550 pound) tuna is hauled aboard a fishing 
vessel at Favignana, Sicily, Italy. May 1999. (Photo by Danilo 
Cedrone courtesy FAO) 
The recovery plan allows tuna to only be offloaded at 
designated ports and obliges countries to place observers on 
fishing boats to monitor their adherence to regulations. 
"These various measures should help substantially decrease 
illegal unreported and unregulated fishing," said Bonzon. 
The FAO classifies bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean as 
"depleted," meaning that current catches fall far below 
historic levels. 
Landings of the large, far-ranging fish in Mediterranean 
waters peaked at 39,000 metric tons in 1994, but by 2002 
dropped by nearly half that amount, to 22,000 tons. 
The global conservation organization WWF warned today that 
tuna are fast disappearing, with important stocks at high risk 
of commercial extinction due to weak management. 
The warning comes in advance of the first meeting of 
government members of the world’s five tuna management 
organizations. 
Japan will host a joint meeting of tuna Regional Fisheries 
Management Organizations, RFMOs, next week at the 
International Conference Centre in Kobe. 
RFMOs are the main mechanism developed by countries to 
regulate fishing on the high seas – areas beyond national laws 
– where most tuna catches occur. 
WWF’s new report, "Tuna in Trouble: Major Problems for the 
World’s Tuna Fisheries," reveals rampant illegal, unreported 
and unregulated fishing, unsustainable quotas and too many 
boats competing for the remaining tunas. 
"Sustainable management of the world’s tuna fisheries should 
be possible, if the will can be found," says Dr. Simon Cripps, 
director of WWF’s Global Marine Programme. 
Spanish tuna purse seiner in the western Indian Ocean. The 
smaller vessel on the stern is secured to the seine net and 
when a school of tuna is encountered, it is launched to help 
encircle the fish. (Photo by Jose Cort courtesy NOAA) 
"But many governments are routinely ignoring scientific 
advice, failing to implement the available conservation and 
management measures, turning a blind eye to illegal fishing 
and not prosecuting those who flout the rules," said Cripps. 
The capacity of the world’s tuna fleet is now far greater than 
required to catch the legal quota, WWF warns. In 2002 in the 
Eastern Pacific Ocean, the capacity of the purse-seine fleets 
targeting bigeye and yellowfin tuna was 70 percent higher than 
needed to catch the quantity advised by scientis 
Formal co-operation between governments through RFMOs dates 
back to the 1920s and there are now 16 RFMOs with a mandate to 
establish binding management measures for fisheries resources. 

Five tuna RFMOs were established to conserve and sustainable 
manage tuna stocks in different oceans. These are: 
  International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic 
  Tunas 
  Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 
  Indian Ocean Tuna Commission 
  Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission 
  CCSBT Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin 
  Tuna 
To see the RFMO map click here. 
The Tuna RFMOs have developed a new website at: 
http://www.tuna-org.org/ 
According to the FAO, the RFMOs represent the best way to 
harmonize national fisheries regulations and improve 
management at the regional and global levels. 
They are also the only mechanisms for managing fishing in high 
seas areas, which fall outside of national jurisdictions. 
Yet, the FAO says, despite efforts in recent years to improve 
their management capacity, some RFMOs have failed to achieve 
their fundamental goal of the sustainable management of fish 
stocks. 
In March, the FAO will host the first global meeting of RFMOs 
during the next meeting of its biennial Committee on 
Fisheries. There countries will discuss ways to improve RFMO 
performance.