After fighting a fierce battle last year against the IATTC ban, which prohibited tuna fishing in the EPO, once again Ecuadorian tuna industrialists are considering what their position will be this year, now they are again facing a similar two-month ban.
The undersecretary of the Ecuadorian Tuna Boatowners Association (ATUNEC), Lucia Fernandez de Genna, put forward that "Ecuador does not want to be the only good boy of the IATTC", by this she refers to her observation that in previous years, countries such as Venezuela and Mexico did not fulfill their obligations towards the ban. In addition, she emphasized that the prohibition could cause serious socioeconomic consequences in the regions that lives from tuna, like the port of Manta, where 6,000 families depend on the fishing of this species.
In Ecuador it is also mentioned that there are technical reasons for which "the Ecuadorian fishing authority does not accept the prohibition". However first the matter will be discussed with all involved in the sector before any public standpoint or announcement is made on how Ecuador will treat this ban.
The tuna-fishing sector plans to have a meeting in Guayaguil to decide what its final position will be in respect to the prohibition. Jose Alfredo Salvador, executive director of the Chamber of Industrial Tuna Processors, defended the position of the industrialists arguing that, in previous years, there had already been other countries, which did not accept the decisions of the IATTC.
Nevertheless, he assured that the final decision will be taken with the consensus of all the sector, on whether the Ecuadorian tuna vessels will anchor in the port of Manta during the two last months of the year or not.
Source: Ecuadorian Press