E - Iccat

PLENARY SESSIONS
– Recommendation by ICCAT Concerning Minimum Standards for the Establishment of a Vessel Monitoring
System in the ICCAT Convention Area (see ANNEX 5 [Ref. 03-14]).
The Delegate of Japan expressed concern about the difficulty of Japan’s full implementation of the Vessel
Monitoring System (ANNEX 5 [Ref. 03-14]) but indicated he will report back on the degree of success, and
asked that this be noted in the record.
8. Report of the 1 st Meeting of the Working Group on Process and Criteria for the Establishment of IUU
Trade Restrictive Measures
During the opening Plenary session, this Agenda item was deferred to the Joint Meeting of the Compliance
Committee and the PWG.
During the Final Plenary Session, the Report of the 1 st Meeting of the Working Group on Process and Criteria
for the Establishment of IUU Trade Restrictive Measures (ANNEX 4.2) was adopted, by consensus.
The Commission adopted the following Resolution, by consensus:
– Resolution by ICCAT Concerning Trade Measures (see ANNEX 6 [Ref. 03-15]).
9. Summary Report of the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics
9.1 SCRS Report
The 2003 SCRS meeting took place in Madrid, Spain, from 6-10 October. The SCRS Chairman, Dr. Joao Gil
Pereira, presented an overview of the report to the Commission Plenary on the first day of the meeting.
Discussions on each stock were deferred to the relevant Panel.
Dr. Pereira explained that 2003 had been another busy year with many inter-sessional meetings including the
Meeting for Improving the Collection of Fisheries Statistics in Ghana (Tema, Ghana, 2 to 5 February 2003), the
Inter-sessional Meeting of the ICCAT Sub-Committee on Statistics to establish data exchange protocols and
standard codes (Madrid, 24-27 March 2003), and the Meeting of the ICCAT Working Group on Assessment
Methods (Shimizu, Japan, 7-11 April 2003), as well as stock assessments for Mediterranean swordfish, Atlantic
yellowfin and North and South Atlantic albacore, and a meeting to evaluate the effects of the moratorium on
tropical tuna stocks.
Progress was reported on ICCAT’s special research programs: the Bigeye Tuna Year Program (BETYP), the
Bluefin Year Program (BYP), and the Enhanced Research Program for Billfish. All three Programs have made
substantial improvement on the knowledge of these species and the Chairman referred the Commission to the
results and budgets of these programs contained in the SCRS Report. Dr. Pereira noted that the final Symposium
for the BETYP is planned for 8-9 March 2004, and will be followed by the Second World Meeting on Bigeye
Tuna from 10-13 March 2004. He also drew the Commission’s attention to the SCRS proposal for a research
plan to enhance the current BYP.
Dr. Pereira noted, in particular, that the SCRS continues to be very concerned about the deteriorating quality of
the data. This topic was discussed broadly in the Species Groups, by the Sub-Committee on Statistics, and at the
SCRS Plenary. He noted that many Contracting Parties and Cooperating non-Contracting Parties, Entities or
Fishing Entities do not send data and/or meet submission deadlines.
The SCRS has proposed several meetings and assessments for 2004: the BETYP Symposium and Second World
Meeting on Bigeye Tuna; a GFCM/ICCAT data preparatory meeting (for albacore and small tunas); an East
Atlantic bluefin data preparatory meeting; blue and short-fin mako shark; and West Atlantic bluefin and skipjack
assessments. He also noted the SCRS recommendation that the Commission be a signatory to the formal FIRMS
Partnership Arrangement (see Agenda item 16.3).
Dr. Pereira explained that the entire suite of recommendations from the SCRS could be found in the various
Detailed Reports and meeting reports of SCRS subsidiary bodies, and that those with direct implications for the
Commission could be found in Section 16 of the SCRS Report. Without going into the details of all of the
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