R E P O R T for biennial period, 2006-07 PART I (2006) - Vol ... - Iccat

ICCAT REPORT 2006-2007 (I)
meeting and the proposal to establish a Working Group on the Future of ICCAT, the Chairman proposed
referring this matter to the Working Group and that a Chair should be elected in 2007-2008. The Commission
concurred with these suggestions. At a later session, the Commission established the Working Group on the
Future of ICCAT and confirmed that the restructuring issue would be referred to this body for consideration.
Various delegations expressed opinions on the futre of the PWG and COC. The position on the future PWG was
not unanimous, although the majority of the delegations that intervened were more in favor of maintaining the
two bodies, redefining the terms of reference to avoid duplicity. In this sense, some delegations pointed out
proposals to consider for such definition.
At the end of the discussion, Mrs. Sylvie Lapointe, a member of the Delegation of Canada, was elected PWG
Chair for this meeting.
6.2 Issues contained in Annex 11 of the 2005 ICCAT Proceedings
Of the issues that the Commission decided to postpone in its 2005 meeting, for discussion in 2006, most were
discussed in the meetings of the subsidiary bodies (Compliance Committee and STACFAD). Thus, under this
Agenda item, discussions centered on matters regarding the interpretation and definition of terms and formats of
communication and distribution of information. As a starting point, the document on “Proposals by the
Chairman in Relation to Interpretative Issues, Definition of Terms and Dissemination of Information” was
considered.
With regard to interpretative issues concerning the ICCAT conservation and management measures, it was
considered that the Panels were the appropriate bodies for discussion.
As concerns the other issues, discussion advanced only on the Guidelines for the Dissemination of Information
Submitted by the CPCs. For its adoption, the Chairman proposed the approaches included in section 4 of
document on “Proposals by the Chairman in Relation to Interpretative Issues, Definition of Terms and
Dissemination of Information”. The Guidelines for the Dissemination of Information Submitted by CPCs were
adopted and are attached as ANNEX 7.3. No decision was taken concerning a proposal for a reporting format
working group, or the need to further work to develop definitions, which would require agreement on a workplan
or methods.
7. Consideration for the adoption of the revised Compendium of ICCAT Conservation and Management
Measures
The Chairman proposed the adoption of the revised Compendium, allowing a two-year period for adaptation
(2008-2009). In view of the Chairman’s proposal, some delegations pointed out the difficulty of updating the
Compendium once adopted. Several possibilities were considered. Some suggested that changes which might be
necessary in the future be adopted as specific documents whilst other options proposed their adoption as a form
of reference maintaining the validity of the original Compendium.
The elimination of preambular paragraphs from the original texts was also a matter of discussion since,
according to some delegates, this could decontextualize the measure.
Since no consensus could be reached on this matter during the meeting, the Chairman proposed postponing
discussion to the 2007 Commission meeting.
8. Summary Report of the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS)
The 2006 SCRS Meeting was held in Madrid, Spain, October 2 to 6, immediately after the meetings of the
Species Groups. The SCRS Chairman, Dr. Gerald Scott, presented a summary of the Report on the first day of
the Plenary Sessions. The discussions on the individual stocks were postponed until the meetings of the pertinent
Panels.
Dr. Scott gave a general introduction on the catch trends of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic and the
criteria used by the Committee to establish its diagnosis on the state of the stocks. Then the SCRS Chairman
presented the changes that had been made concerning the structure of the SCRS. The major change was the
36