U.S. Will Demand Tougher Sanctions Against Over-Fishing In ICCATff

U.S. Fisheries officials heading to an international conference next month said Thursday they will push for increased sanctions on countries that violate fishing quotas or take undersized fish.

Concerned about bluefin tuna stocks, William Hogarth, assistant administrator of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, told a congressional committee that some countries are not reporting data on their takes. And that, he said, is making it difficult for experts to manage the stocks and practice conservation efforts.

In some instances, he said, countries are “intentionally misreporting” their data so they don't have to be held accountable if they overfish.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has authority over the management of all Atlantic tunas and billfish. The commission, which includes 37 members representing more than 60 countries, will meet in Dublin, Ireland in mid-November.

”Non-compliance by other nations hits us in the wallets,” said Glenn Roger Delaney, one of the U.S. commissioners to the ICCAT meeting. He said the United States should lobby for broader market or trade sanctions so that a violation involving one species of fish could be punished using limits on other species that would have a greater impact on the offending nation.

Officials said bluefin tuna stocks in the eastern Atlantic are greatly affected by overfishing violations and lack of accurate data in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Also, commercial overfishing of bluefin tuna and blue and white marlins threatens to undermine thousands of U.S. fishermen who rely on the stocks for their livelihood, said Herb Moore Jr., government affairs director for the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

”The U.S. recreational fishing sector has a right to expect foreign governments to live up to their treaty obligations,” he told the House Fisheries subcommittee.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Wayne Gilcrest, R-Md., said the problems have convinced him and other lawmakers to attend the meeting to discuss the issue with government officials from the other countries.