E - Iccat

ICCAT REPORT 2012-2013 (I)
I am grateful for your attention, wish you every success in the work of the meeting and wish you a pleasant stay
in Morocco and Agadir. I hope that through the excellent and warm reception offered to our guests, you will
achieve the objectives of this session.
3.2 OPENING STATEMENTS BY CONTRACTING PARTIES
Albania
First of all, on behalf of the Albanian delegation, I would like to thank the Government of Morocco for hosting
this 18th Special Meeting of the Commission. I would also like to express my gratitude to the ICCAT Secretariat
and the ICCAT Chairman for their hard work in preparing the meeting.
The Albanian delegation notes, in brief, that:
− Albania has been a Contracting Party to ICCAT since 1988;
− For the first time in 2009, Albania was allocated and used a bluefin tuna catch quota;
− For the year 2012, as you are aware, Albania has been suspended for bluefin tuna fishing because of
problems regarding information and the lack of reporting of statistical data which was either weak or
inexistent.
However, throughout 2012, Albania has made progress in terms of overcoming the problems associated with the
implementation of its obligations in accordance with ICCAT Recommendation 10-04.
As you are aware, in the letter of October 23, 2012 addressed to the ICCAT Compliance Committee, Albania
explained the current situation regarding the difficulties and objective reasons that have prevented it from fully
meeting the current requirements applicable by ICCAT, which were as follows:
1. Important changes that have been implemented at the Fisheries Directorate at the Ministry of
Environment, Forests and Water Administration (MoEFWA).
2. Lack of experience and necessary qualifications of our new specialists to meet the reporting obligations of
ICCAT Committees.
3. We have, however, followed the advice of ICCAT and sought the assistance of the Secretariat to help us
in qualitative data gathering.
4. One of the most important reports is bluefin catch data which is 0 (zero) for 2012 because we had
suspended the fishing rights due to ICCAT’s decision.
Despite the above difficulties, Albania is committed and has taken the necessary actions to achieve full and
satisfactory compatibility with ICCAT Recommendation 10-04, and we inform you of the following:
1. As far as is legal, the Albanian fisheries legislation base now has its full set of catch regulation, fulfilment
of obligations, and monitoring of bluefin tuna fisheries based on the recommendations of ICCAT.
2. We have taken the necessary procedural steps with regard to a multi-year plan for stock recovery of
bluefin tuna, and for this we have prepared a Ministerial Decree of the MoEFWA which transposes
ICCAT Recommendation 10-04.
3. We are in the process of drafting the fisheries plan of action which will be ready and sent to the ICCAT
Secretariat by March 1, 2013.
Our previous difficulties in drafting this plan were hindered by the Albanian law which requires that the
selection of Albanian flagged ships authorized for bluefin tuna fishing should be selected through a public
bidding process.
We are in the process of implementing this procedure but in order to grant those rights we need the
reallocation of the quota by ICCAT since knowing the quota and being able to fish for bluefin is the most
important part of the process of public bidding.
After selecting the vessels, giving them the right and allocating part of the total quota to each vessel, we
will then be able to inform ICCAT and report all the individual vessel’s data and statistics and all the
necessary documentation needed for the vessels.
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