Race for the last bluefin Capacity of the purse seine fleet ... - WWF

Purported BFT catch under-reporting and/or non-reporting by virtually all ICCAT Contracting
Parties are estimated to have been in tune of as much as 25,000 Mt per year since 1996. 4 Such
systematic BFT catch under-reporting by ICCAT contracting parties has been denounced by
ICCAT-SCRS’s latest BFT stock assessment and NGOs such as WWF in 2006 and 2007.
In this sense, the EU Luxembourg-based Court of Auditors (EU CA) recently stated that the
European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), under which the European Commission sets
TACs, does not work. 5
Figure 002: Effective total adjusted ICCAT NEA+MED BFT yearly quotas by major BFT fishing Contracting Parties,
including EU Member States.
The EU CA stated that the actual level of catches is “unknown”, thanks to gaps, errors and
“misstatements” in data sent to Brussels by national governments. 6
Most rule-breakers are not caught, those caught are seldom punished, and the few who are
punished face trifling fines. Schemes to reduce overcapacity in fishing fleets are also subverted,
not only at EU level but also at international level.
Again, and in further defiance of urgent scientific advice to sustainably manage a depleted BFT
stock at high risk of collapse, major BFT fishing Contracting Parties to ICCAT failed to implement a
binding capacity reduction plan for the Mediterranean BFT targeting fleets, at ICCAT’s Raleigh,
North Carolina, US inter-sessional meeting July 2007.
Instead, a formal recommendation to "freeze" present BFT fishing capacity status-quo at an underestimated
50,000 Mt in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic, was reached, thus well overstepping
ICCAT’s approved TAC levels for 2008 to 2011 and tripling those recommended by ICCAT SCRS
itself, to ensure a BFT stock recovery.
on the Commission's proposal. Source: COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1559/2007, establishing a multi-annual recovery plan for
Bluefin Tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean and amending Regulation (EC) No 520/2007.
4
According to ICCAT-SCRS Task-I database latest available update, 426,067.64 Mt of Bluefin Tuna were reported as having been
caught during the decade 1996-2006. 288,918.38 Mt (67,81%) of such BFT reported catches took place inside the Mediterranean Sea.
5
Special Report No 7/2007 (pursuant to Article 248(4) second paragraph, EC) on the control, inspection and sanction systems relating
to the rules on conservation of Community fisheries resources together with the Commission's replies. European Court of Auditors,
published on December 2007.
6 th
Announcing the closure of the BFT fisheries in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic September 19 2007, the European Commission
admitted that European fleets had well over-fished their quota for 2007 and acknowledged “failings in the reporting of catch data” and
illegal fishing.
5