Tuna fishermen. (Photo Credit: NOAA)
Pew urges WCPFC to improve tuna fisheries
WORLDWIDE
Tuesday, November 24, 2015, 03:20 (GMT + 9)
The non-government organisation Pew Charitable Trusts has released its policy recommendations for the upcoming meeting of the members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), requesting its members to improve management of tuna fisheries in the region.
“The region can’t afford continued delays. It is time for action,” pointed out representatives of the environmental organization.
In advance to the WCPFC 12th Regular Session, to be held from 3 to 8 December in Bali, Indonesia, Pew urges all Commission Members, Cooperating Non-Members, and Participating Territories—known collectively as CCMs—to cooperate in the following:
- Adopt timelines to implement harvest strategies for tunas;
- Rebuild the Pacific bluefin tuna population;
- End bigeye tuna overfishing and effectively manage fish aggregating devices (FADs);
- Refine current management measures to reduce shark mortality in fisheries targeting other species;
- Develop a comprehensive list of requirements for shark management plans;
- Prohibit retention of mobulid rays and adopt live release guidance;
- Enact measures to improve data collection for key shark species;
- Adopt minimum standards for port inspections;
- Enhance the effectiveness of the WCPFC Record of Fishing Vessels and the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Vessel List;
- Ban transshipment at sea;
- Strengthen the Commission compliance monitoring scheme and provide greater transparency.
According to Pew, despite strong scientific and management advice to the Commission, the conservation and management measures now in place are inadequate to end or prevent overfishing of some stocks. For example, two of six commercial tuna stocks—critical to some of the world’s largest tuna fisheries—continue to be fished unsustainably. Although some progress has been made on the conservation and management of sharks, much more is needed to guarantee that unsustainable shark fishing does not occur.
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media
|
|