E - Iccat

COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE
Secretariat to all CPCs in January each year. Responses to this inquiry greatly facilitate the work of the
Compliance Committee by clarifying which requirements apply to each CPC and in particular, which reports and
data are to be expected. Unfortunately, only of 30 of 48 Contracting Parties and 2 of 5 Cooperating Parties
responded, leading to increased work for the Secretariat as well as the Committee. The Chair commended the
Secretariat’s efforts to assist the CPCs by sending quarterly reminders of reporting deadlines.
5.1 Compliance tables
The chair noted that 32 of 48 Contracting Parties and 1 of 5 Cooperating Parties had provided compliance tables
by the deadline. Late submissions place an additional burden on the Secretariat and reduce the efficiency of
Committee. It was announced that revisions and corrections would be accepted by the Secretariat staff only until
18:30 hours on 12 November in order to have a final tables for review by the Committee.
Compliance tables were reviewed for adoption by the Committee. The Chairman was concerned by the repeated
failure of several CPCs to submit the compliance tables, which are crucial to determine compliance with quotas,
catch limits and size limits. Parties were kindly requested to submit such tables in accordance with reporting
requirements. The information provided by the Parties during the discussion resulted in minor adjustments of
these tables, which were subsequently adopted by the Committee.
The information on Trinidad & Tobago with regards to north albacore and north swordfish was not submitted
before the deadline and was not available at the time of adoption of these Compliance Tables. Trinidad &
Tobago indicated that landings of north albacore are by-catches.
Brazil reiterated to the Committee that according to national legislation catches of white marlin and blue marlin
shall be released if alive, and marketing of retained dead marlin is not allowed. Therefore, Brazil stated that it
was in full compliance with the conservation measure and requested the balance figure, whether positive or
negative, to be deleted from the tables.
Belize has presented its North Albacore payback proposal from 2012 to 2014. Following the transfer of 200 t of
north albacore each year from Chinese Taipei, the adjusted quotas for 2012 and 2013 will be of 280 t per year.
Ghana committed to payback its overharvest of bigeye tuna from 2012 until 2021 with 337 t by year. Following
the transfers received from China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Korea, the adjusted quota for 2012 was of 4,897 t.
The compliance tables were adopted and are attached as Appendix 2 to ANNEX 10.
5.2 CPC Statistical data summaries
The Chair called attention to the 2012 SCRS report, especially the report of the Sub-Committee on Statistics.
SCRS recognized improvements in the submission of Task I data including data for sharks and by-catch species.
However, partial submissions and multiple revisions of data sets increase the workload for the Secretariat and the
species working groups. SCRS expressed ongoing concerns with the quality of data and proposed to develop
criteria to evaluate quality. Also, it was noted that improvements in data on fleet characteristics, tag releases and
catch at size would facilitate analytical work.
Of particular concern to the Compliance Committee were analytical requests to SCRS that were dependent on
reports from the CPCs. The limited response rate (24 of 48 Contracting Parties) for reports on national observer
programs [Recs. 10-04 and 10-10] precluded conclusions by SCRS. Similarly, only 6 CPCs submitted FAD
management plans (2 incomplete) and too few shark data collection plans were submitted to support an analysis.
5.3 CPC Compliance summaries
Agenda items 4 and 5.3 were addressed as a whole. The Committee reviewed the compliance summaries tables,
which were amended as appropriate in light of the responses received from the Parties during the discussions of
the Committee or as a result of the reports received by the Secretariat following the deadline for submission
(Appendix 3 to ANNEX 10).
The Chair stressed the need for the Parties to provide more accurate information on which reporting
requirements are applicable to them and, if not applicable, provide an explanation. This would simplify the task
of the Secretariat when producing the compliance summaries and will facilitate the discussions during the
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