Wereldwijde tonijnorganisatie omarmt EU-voorstel voor vangstbeperking (en) - Montesquieu Instituut

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The global organisation tasked with managing tuna in the Atlantic has unanimously embraced an EU proposal to reduce the annual catch of the critically endangered fish by 40 percent. But conservationists said the cut-back is still not enough to allow stocks to recover.

The EU, alongside Japan, Morocco and Tunisia proposed that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) reduce the annual total allowable catch for 2010 from the current 22,000 to 13,500 tonnes.

In addition, the fishing season for purse seiners (a type of boat) will be reduced to one month and countries will no longer be able to extend the fishing season even if fleets have been forced to stay in port due to bad weather.

The proposal were accepted unanimously by all 48 ICCAT contracting parties at a vote on on Sunday (15 November).

But ocean conservationists said the decision is an empty gesture that further threatens the species, whose commercial viability is on the verge of collapse as a result of overfishing, illegal fishing and mismanagement.

Environmental groups had wanted to see a total closure of the fishery as the only credible measure to ensure recovery.

They noted that the reduced industrial fishing season still remains open during the peak of the spawning period from May to June, when the tuna are most vulnerable.

"Today's outcome is entirely unscientific - and entirely unacceptable," said Sergi Tudela, a fisheries campaigner with WWF Mediterranean, the conservation group.

"This reduction of allowable catch is not based on any particular scientific advice to recover the stock with high probability - it is just an arbitrary political measure and only for one year."

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