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Tunisia Takes Steps To Combat IUU Tuna Fishingff

8 January 2010 Tunisia

Source: Tunisia News

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has become a priority issue at international level. Strong measures have already been taken by the European Commission to prevent illegal fishing.

Concerned with non-declared and non-regulated fishing phenomenon, Tunisia has set up series of rules to ensure an efficient implementation of the European Commission’s regulations, which was the focus of a working session held, on Tuesday in Tunis.

Chaired by Mr. Abdessalem Mansour, Minister of agriculture and water resources, the working session focused on the European Commission’s regulations which prohibit importation of non-regulated fishing products.

Regulations also concerns conditioning, processing and transportation of fishing products.

To ensure the viability of its fishing resources, Tunisia is among the first countries to have promulgated laws aiming at deterring illegal fishing in order to guarantee required conformity of the Tunisian fishing products to the enforced European quality and health security standards.

Tunisia also seeks to boost its cooperation on an international level with specialized international organizations namely the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).