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Final <strong>Report</strong>
RoO Derogation under the PACP-IEPA
2. Catches of high value yellowfin tuna have tailed off since 2007, most likely due to the
increased intensity of tuna catch since the mid-1990s (e.g. FAD use, other forms of effort
creep, and rising vessel capacity) and record high catches in 2003-06; 274 with negative
implications for the EU DWF business model/profitability.
This has resulted in up to 15 purse seiners leaving the Western Indian Ocean for other oceanic
regions, mainly the Eastern Central Atlantic. Some EU boat owners fear that the resulting increase in
pressure on the purse seine fishery in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean will result in its collapse. 275
The two areas of operation of the French fleet are:
• The Eastern Central Atlantic since the 1950s (Figure 6.7(b)), with Abidjan, Ivory Coast as the
main base of the fleet since the 1970s. Twenty years after the industrialization of this
fishery, purse seine catch had reached a peak of 70,000-80,000 mt in the early 1970s. The
deployment of FADs from the early 1990s saw this fishery reach a second peak of 140,000
276
mt before stabilizing again.
• The Western Indian Ocean since the 1980s, with Port Victoria, Seychelles as the main base.
The EU DWF is the main player in this fishery. For the period 1984-2007, European-owned
boats took over 90% of the catch of the entire Western Indian Ocean purse seine fishery. 277
The Spanish fleet mirrored the French equivalent in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, including its
bases. But it is also active in:
• The Eastern Central Pacific, where it has had minor operations since the 1970s, but
expanded significantly with increased investment in onshore processing in the early 2000s.
This includes the local registration and flagging of Spanish owned boats in several Latin
American countries (see Sections 6.5 and 6.6), whose catch is not recorded in Figure 6.7(b).
• The Western and Central Pacific, where it first started operations in 1999 (Figure 6.7(b)). In
2010/11, Spanish interests owned a total of 14 purse seiners that are registered with the
WCPFC to fish in the WCPO. 278 This does not necessarily mean that all boats undertake the
majority of their activities in the WCPO. Currently, only four EU-flagged purse seiners
operate under Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs) with Federated States of Micronesia,
Kiribati and Solomon Island. Two of the boats are owned by Albacora and the other 2 by
Garavilla (see Table 6.7 below). 279 Another 10 Spanish-owned purse seiners use non-EU
flags: 2 flagged by El Salvador owned by Calvo that fish in the WCPO under a bilateral access
arrangement with Kiribati; 3 flagged by Ecuador and 1 that has recently switched flag and
area of operation from Seychelles to Kiribati, all owned by Albacora; 2 Garavilla owned boats
flagged by El Salvador; and 2 flagged by Ecuador and owned by Pesquera Ugavi, S.A. (also
based in Ecuador) but which is affiliated to the OPAGAC/AGAC producer organisation. 280
Tuna fisheries access by the EU-flagged DWF is negotiated by and partly paid for by the EU. In 2010,
FPAs were in place across three of the world’s four major tropical tuna fisheries, as illustrated in
Figure 6.8. The EU DWF that is flagged by third parties access fisheries using different local
274 IOTC 2009: 92-94; Allen 2010: 24.
275 Interviews, EU industry representatives, 2010.
276 Miyake et al. 2004: 25.
277 Campling 2012.
278 WCPFC record of authorised vessels.
279 The limitation to 4 vessels under EU FPAs in the WCPO is reportedly due to a negotiated agreement by the
EU during its successful bid to gain membership of the WCPFC (Interview, OPAGAC representative, July 2011).
280 Table 6.7; Interview, OPAGAC representative, 27 July 2011; written communication, OPAGAC
representative, 4 and 7 November 2011.
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