E - Iccat

ADDRESSES & STATEMENTS
With roughly 30 species within its purview, ICCAT CPCs must show their commitment to strengthening
management, ensuring compliance, and broadening the current priorities of this Convention beyond merely
single species management. In particular, most shark species caught in ICCAT fisheries are completely
unmanaged - important species such as shortfin makos and blue sharks are caught without any limits, highly
threatened species such as porbeagles continue to be landed and sold. This group of vulnerable fishes must be a
priority for precautionary management.
Oceana believes that eastern bluefin tuna should be allowed to follow a stable path towards full recovery, while
ICCAT broadens its focus and addresses the management of the remaining ICCAT fisheries.
Oceana calls upon ICCAT CPCs to:
−
−
−
−
−
Secure the recovery of eastern bluefin tuna, by maintaining current TAC levels, in accordance with
SCRS Recommendations.
Set science-based, precautionary limits on catches of shortfin mako and blue sharks, which are key
targeted species in ICCAT fisheries.
Prohibit the retention, landing, and trade of highly threatened species, such as porbeagles.
Close the loopholes in the ICCAT ban on shark finning, by requiring sharks to be landed with their fins
attached policy in ICCAT Convention area.
Show real commitment to establishing a culture of compliance, which is essential for effective fisheries
management.
Pew Environment Group
The Pew Environment Group thanks delegates at this meeting of the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) for the opportunity to discuss science-based measures for Atlantic
bluefin tuna, conservation and management measures for sharks and compliance with ICCAT measures. We
thank the Moroccan government for its excellent efforts in organizing this meeting.
We call your attention to our policy statement, “Better Management for all ICCAT Species: Time to Fill in the
Puzzle Pieces”, which was circulated electronically to all Contracting Parties (CPs), and is available on our
website at www.pewenvironment.org/ip (in English, French, and Spanish) along with copies of our other
materials. The following supplements that policy statement and other documents.
Recommendations
The Pew Environment Group is encouraged that ICCAT has taken steps in recent years towards more sustainable
management of tunas and sharks, as well as improving compliance with existing management measures.
However, more work is still needed as these actions are not yet sufficient to ensure compliance with existing
measures, and initially restore and then guarantee healthy tuna and shark populations across the Atlantic Ocean,
or to fully implement the outcomes of Rio+20.
ICCAT members must heed the science and fully address illegal fishing and the catch of associated and
dependent species. Added to this, ICCAT should also begin the formal process of amending its treaty to
explicitly include sharks as managed species and ensure that sound science, the ecosystem approach and the
precautionary principle underpin all decisions made and ensure they are as robust as possible. ICCAT can then
begin to transform itself into a leading voice for long-term sustainability.
We recommend that ICCAT take the following 10 critical actions at this year’s meeting:
1) Adopt science-based measures for Atlantic bluefin tuna
This year’s annual ICCAT meeting is a critical time for Atlantic bluefin tuna. ICCAT’s scientific committee
(Standing Committee on Research and Statistics, SCRS) updated its stock assessments this year for Atlantic
bluefin and provided strong management advice favouring precaution in setting quotas for both the eastern and
western populations. ICCAT members should follow clear and strong scientific advice to maintain quotas at
current levels through at least 2015, which will allow both stocks to continue to increase. Members must also
look to the future and ensure that the scientific model used to determine the status of the population is sound and
that illegal fishing is accounted for and addressed.
61