PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOuRTH INTERNaTIONal FISHERS FORum

[ 6.5. ]
Institutional Frameworks to Produce
Sustainable Artisanal Coastal Pelagic Fisheries
6.5.1. The role of the IATTC with
regard to coastal fisheries resources
Guillermo Compeán Jimenez
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) was
founded in 1949 by a Convention signed by the governments
of the United States and Costa Rica. The Convention
establishes a Commission for the management of the fisheries
for yellowfin and skipjack tunas in the eastern Pacific Ocean
(EPO), as well as for the study of other species of fish caught
by tuna-fishing vessels. Since 1962 new countries have joined
the Convention, and the current members are Colombia,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Japan,
the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru,
Spain, the United States, Vanuatu and Venezuela.
Although the tuna fishery originated with vessels that caught
tunas with purse-seine nets and handlines, at the time that
the Commission was founded in 1949, the fishery was
dominated by vessels that caught tunas with poles and hooks,
using live bait to attract and concentrate the tunas; for this
reason, the baitfish species were included, together with the
tunas, as a subject for study for the Commission. Since the
late 1960s, the predominant vessels in the fishery have been
those that fish with purse seines. On the basis of the authority
vested in it by the 1949 Convention, and depending on the
fishing gear with the greatest catches of the most abundant
species in the fishery, the Commission has studied tunas,
species of fish used as bait, billfishes (marlin, sailfish and
swordfish) and other fishes associated with the fishery.
In 1976, taking into account the importance acquired
by fishing operations for tunas associated with pods of
dolphins, the Commissioners agreed to initiate a research
program on the tuna-dolphin relationship. The studies
of this relationship and of the dolphin populations led to
the establishment in 1992 of the “La Jolla Agreement,”
which created the International Dolphin Conservation
Program (IDCP) and later, in 1998, the “Agreement on the
International Dolphin Conservation Program” (AIDCP), for
which the Commission provides the secretariat and research
services. With these agreements, the study of the oceanic
epipelagic community of the EPO and the impact of the
fisheries on the ecosystem was strengthened.
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the problem of fishing on
dolphins caused a large part of the fleets that operate in the
EPO to fish on artificial floating objects (fish-aggregating
devices, or FADs), which gave rise to a great concern about
the effect of this technique on the communities associated
with the floating objects, both for the species that are retained
and for those that are discarded at sea. These include a large
quantity of sharks and oceanic fish, as well as sea turtles. In
this situation, and with the commitment of the Parties, the
Commission has undertaken research work on these species
and has adopted some management measures on bycatches.
Functions
As we can see, the IATTC throughout its history has been
involved in the study and management of a large part of
the species that form the community that occupies the
oceanic epipelagic area of the EPO, and it has carried out
those studies on the basis of the authority bestowed on it
by the 1949 Convention, which lists the following as the
Commission’s functions, among others:
1. Study the biology of the tunas and tuna-like species
in the EPO to assess the effects of fishing and of
natural factors on their abundance; and
2. Recommend appropriate conservation measures
designed to keep the populations of fishes at levels
that will permit the maximum sustained catches.
In 1976, when the Commission’s responsibilities were
extended to include the problems caused by the incidental
mortality of dolphins associated with yellowfin tuna in the
EPO, the Commission agreed to “strive to maintain a high
level of tuna production and also to maintain [dolphin]
stocks at or above levels that assure their survival in
perpetuity, with every reasonable effort being made to avoid
needless or careless killing of [dolphins].”
Institutional Frameworks to Produce Sustainable Artisanal Coastal Pelagic Fisheries
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