Spanish Industry Claims Responsibility For Improving Atlantic Bluefin Spawning Stock ff
12 October 2012
Spain
The Spanish Fisheries Confederation (Cepesca) welcomed the good news was released by the Scientific Committee of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) that there are clear signs of improvement of the bluefin tuna stock. This conclusion is based on report which involved monitoring the fishery for six years.
The ICCAT paper assesses that the bluefin tuna spawning stock is again reaching and even exceeds 300,000 tons that had common between the late ‘50s and early ‘70s, and that had collapsed to about 150,000 tons over the first years of the last decade.
Cepesca claimed the responsibility and the efforts of the Spanish tuna industry to achieve the improvement of the Atlantic bluefin status should be acknowledged through compliance with the control measures of the ICCAT Bluefin Tuna Recovery Plan.
Cepesca wants the fishing quotas to be set under the same criteria as in previous years, so they can be increased while maintaining the objective of the recovery of the bluefin tuna.
Once recovery has been reached Cepesca says that “it is necessary to also protect the fishers whose lifestyles have been under threat, and who in many cases have lost their jobs.â€
Furthermore, Cepesca wants to keep the current management measures and fishery control in place:
• Fishing ban in the case of under 30 kilo specimens; • Temporary fishing constraints; • Obligation of having inspectors onboard each boat; • Control of fishing effort and all the landings; • Control of tuna trade in the markets; • Persecution of illegal fishing for this species.
Cepesca Secretary General, Javier Garat, recalled that “since the ICCAT Recovery Plan was launched in 2007, the European seine, longline, rod, hand line and net trap fleets engaged in fishing for bluefin tuna have had their fishing period, capture capabilities and number of ships reduced, with considerable impact on unemployment.â€
The organization believes that it is now “the time to start picking the fruits resulting from the great sacrifices made.â€
