IOTC Expects Smooth Transition As Secretary Retires ff

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has said it expects a gentle transition with the retirement of its first and only secretary, David Ardill, last month.

Mr. Ardill’s successor is Alejandro Anganuzzi, who has been the IOTC’s deputy secretary alongside Mr. Ardill since the commission was established six years ago. “I am extremely happy that Mr. Anganuzzi was chosen to succeed me,” Mr. Ardill said last week after paying a farewell visit to Minister for Foreign Affairs Jeremie Bonnelame.

“We’ve worked very closely together for the past 10 years, so there will be continuity there, and I don’t imagine there will be any radical changes,” he said. Mr. Ardill, together with Mr. Anganuzzi, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday to thank the ministry for its cooperation during the past six years, especially in accommodating the IOTC’s work by helping to organize venues for its regional workshops and meetings.

In the commission’s first six years, Mr. Ardill said, it has become one of the cutting-edge regulatory bodies for fisheries among its counterparts around the world, especially with respect to data collection and information technology. Perhaps most important, he said, is that it has been able to become an effective body in a short amount of time, resulting in an IOTC already prepared to address some of the challenges ahead.

“Looking back I believe the IOTC was created at the right time,” Mr Ardill said. “When it was first established, there wasn’t a real need for monitoring, but now we’re looking at some species that need a cap (on catch levels).”

The commission has also been able to set up lasting partnerships in Seychelles, primarily with the Seychelles Fishing Authority.

“When I first visited Seychelles in the 1980s, the country received no revenue from the tuna fishing industry, and now it’s the top foreign exchange earner, so it was a smart move to make a push for the commission to be based here.”

Mr. Ardill said he believes that as long as the Indian Ocean has fisheries to manage, there will always be a need for the IOTC to manage and link fishing countries in the region together.

“We’re at the crossroads of information,” he said. “We acquire information, process it, and then report back to our member states in the region.”

Under Mr. Anganuzzi’s stewardship, Mr. Ardill said the IOTC will continue to look at ways to monitor fisheries to ensure sustainability. One new project expected to be implemented by the IOTC later this year is the tagging of specific species of tuna, which should provide a wide range of information about the Indian Ocean’s stocks.

The project, funded by the European Union, hopes to monitor some 100,000 fish in the Western Indian Ocean for more than two years, and is another venture that will see the IOTC expand.

“We’re still growing,” Mr. Anganuzzi said, noting how the IOTC has quadrupled in staff since its inception. In support of the tagging project, the commission’s staff is set to double this year alone. “What used to be a comfortable building won’t be comfortable much longer,” Mr. Anganuzzi joked.

The congestion at the IOTC office will be a far cry from six years ago, when he and Mr. Ardill made up two-thirds of the commission’s personnel.

Despite the growth, Mr. Anganuzzi said that the fraction that retired last month will be sorely missed.

“We’ve had such a close partnership,” he said, referring to Mr. Ardill. “It was a bonding experience in building this organization basically from scratch. It will be hard to see him go, and in a sense, he is irreplaceable. He doesn’t know it yet, but he won’t get away from us that easily.”

Mr. Ardill said he will be remaining in Seychelles “for the time being,” and would be around to consult and advise the IOTC if needed. According to Mr. Anganuzzi, that collaboration, beginning six years ago, has been instrumental in protecting the region’s fishing interests.

“The Indian Ocean used to be an empty hole compared to other regions, devoid of regulations,” Mr. Anganuzzi said. “The region was facing a sort of invasion, and it could have been overexploited very quickly, but we were able to set up some initial controls and mechanisms to control illegal fishing. It’s not something that’s being done overnight, but we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

David Ardill and his successor Alejandro Anganuzzi (second and first left respectively) during their call on Minister Bonnelame