E - Iccat

ADDRESSES & STATEMENTS
years, the EU has confirmed and increased its commitment to the fight against IUU fisheries notably by adopting
its IUU Regulation and Memoranda of Understanding with some of its major partners. Overall, we firmly
believe that some more tangible progress by ICCAT is urgently needed and can be achieved at this meeting.
In the same vein, the European Union attaches the utmost importance to the compliance process: a high degree
of compliance with adopted measures is a sine qua non condition for achieving our targets and objectives. We do
hope that the Compliance Committee will have sufficient time to assess compliance with the rules for bluefin
and tropical tunas, sharks, data submission obligations but also chartering arrangements. The European Union
has worked hard itself in order to fully respect ICCAT requirements and to improve its data submissions, despite
the EU being a complex Contracting Party in terms of composition and role in the ICCAT fisheries.
Finally, the European Union would like to thank the Working Group on the Future of ICCAT for the admirable
work it carried out in order to envisage the way forward for our Organisation. Based on the proposal of the
Working Group, we are strongly committed to working towards the excellence and efficiency of a modern and
pioneer ICCAT.
The European Union is looking forward to working constructively with all CPCs in order to achieve these
ambitious goals at this 18 th ICCAT Special Meeting.
Japan
On behalf of the Government of Japan, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to the Government of
Morocco for hosting this important meeting in Agadir, one of the most beautiful and elegant coastal cities, and
also thanks Mr. Driss Meski, the Executive Secretary, as well as the other ICCAT Secretariat staff for the
wonderful preparation and arrangements.
There are many challenging and important issues on the table at this meeting. Among other things, Japan gives
priority to the following three issues.
The first issue is conservation and management of bluefin tuna. The SCRS report shows remarkable recovery of
the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stock although there are some uncertainties. Japan considers that such
recovery is the result of effective conservation and management measures that ICCAT has introduced in recent
years. ICCAT should continue to make efforts to achieve the objective of the Convention based on scientific
research and findings. For this purpose, mandatory introduction of stereoscopic camera recommended by SCRS
is one of the important areas for improvement in control and monitoring.
Things are different when it comes to the western stock. Japan is concerned that SCRS is stuck with a two
extreme scenario approach, namely, the Low and High Recruitment Scenarios, and cannot provide consistent
scientific advice. ICCAT should seriously consider a new approach in the western stock assessment in order to
give more certain conclusion on the stock status.
The second issue is strengthening of traceability for tuna species. ICCAT has been successfully operating
Bluefin Tuna Catch Documentation Scheme (BCD) for several years. In order to make it more useful and reduce
the workload of its users and the Secretariat, we should introduce an electronic BCD system as soon as possible.
The success of BCD sets a good example for measures to strengthen traceability of tuna species. ICCAT should
seriously consider the expansion of a catch documentation scheme to other tuna species such as skipjack,
yellowfin and bigeye as a countermeasure against IUU fisheries.
The third issue is compliance of conservation and management measures for species other than bluefin tuna.
ICCAT has been spending so much time on compliance of bluefin tuna. Now that the compliance of measures on
bluefin tuna fisheries has been greatly improved, ICCAT should pay more attention to compliance of measures
on other fisheries.
Regarding the Convention amendment, we are not yet convinced that this is the best way to improve the
performance of ICCAT. Japan urges other members to consider that there are many other practical ways to
improve the performance in a more efficient manner, and that it would take a tremendous amount of time and
resources until negotiation is concluded among over 40 members.
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