E - Iccat

COMPLIANCE COMITTEE REPORT
Statement by Turkey to the Compliance Committee
Appendix 2 to ANNEX 9
In Table 1 and Table 2 of the document on the establishment of an ICCAT Positive List of Vessels over 24
meters authorized to operate in the Convention Area in 2003 is listed as 50.
As stated in the official letter of Turkey, this number illustrates only the number of the bluefin tuna catching
vessels over 24 meters. The total number of Turkish vessels fishing in the ICCAT Convention area for tuna and
tuna-like species will be reported to the ICCAT Secretariat in due time.
With regard to the East Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Compliance Table for 2003, the balances of Turkey have been
calculated without considering the revision of the catches made by Turkey, while in this table the catch revisions
of the other countries were taken into consideration.
Turkey requests the Compliance Committee to take the aforementioned revisions into consideration.
Compliance Tables for 2003
Appendix 3 to ANNEX 9
The Recommendation by ICCAT on Application of Three Compliance Recommendations [Ref. 98-14] obliges the
Contracting Parties to provide information on statistics and compliance with ICCAT Recommendations, and
provides that the [Compliance] Committee, with the assistance of the ICCAT Secretariat, shall prepare and
distribute to the Contracting Parties a “Compliance Annex”.
At the meeting of the Working Group on Compliance, held in November 2001, many of the questions regarding
interpretation of the ICCAT regulatory measures for the purpose of compiling the Compliance annexes were
clarified, but new doubts have arisen resulting from Recommendations that have been adopted since that time, as
follows:
Bluefin tuna - East
No quotas/catch limits were set for bluefin east for 2002. Some Contacting Parties undertook to maintain the
limit set for 2001, but such measures were voluntary as the Commission did not adopt any regulation for this
species. Compliance is therefore difficult to calculate, and only those adjustments involving overages/underages
that were reported are shown.
Bigeye tuna
The Recommendation by ICCAT on the 2002 Bigeye Tuna Conservation Measures [Ref. 01-01], paragraph 1,
states that:
“Each Contracting Party and Cooperating non-Contracting Party, Entity or Fishing Entity
shall, in 2002, limit their catch of Atlantic bigeye tuna to the average catch of Atlantic bigeye
tuna taken by all their vessels in 1991 and 1992.”
but this Recommendation also provides, in paragraph 3, that:
“The provision of paragraph 1 will not apply to Contracting Parties, Cooperating non-
Contracting Parties, Entities or Fishing Entities whose reported 1999 catch, as provided to the
SCRS in 2000, was less than 2,100 MT.”
The Secretariat has been unable, therefore, to determine the catch limits, if any, for those Contracting Parties,
Cooperating non-Contracting Parties, Entities or Fishing Entities whose reported catch in 1999 was less than
2,100 t, as it is not clear what such limit should be.
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