Priorities For ICCAT

The general public may not be aware of the international regulations/ stipulations that is being recommended from such an organisation as International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). Their latest article highlights the importance of the Regional Fishery Management Organisation (RFMO's) to govern and regulate their respective oceans for sustainability. In Cape Town the South African government is hosting the 23rd annual International Commission  For The Conservation Of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) conference. I was unable to attend as part of the 54 man South African delegation comprising the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF) and industry as for certain reasons. Besides this setback, I feel that the South African Tuna Pole Fishery will be well looked after by those representatives from our industry namely, The Large Pelagic SMME Association and The South African Tuna Association both of which I'm on the respective committees. Various topics will be tabled for discussion throughout this week concerning the tuna species in the North and Southern Atlantic Oceans. A more heated topic is that of the blue fin tuna with Japan and Spain baying for an increase to their respective quotas and in stiff opposition to this are the likes of Green Peace and ISSF, who will compellingly argue that scientific data proves otherwise. The South African quota is so small that our vessels manage to catch our country's quota in a matter of a few weeks and such, blue fin tuna on the long lines are simply cut off the line dead when the quota is finished. However, South Africa is in the final stages of full membership with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) will subsequently have their quota increased substantially. South Africa which shares its quota with Namibia have consecutively under caught its ICCAT quota for albacore.

ICCAT is responsible for the management of the tuna stocks within the Atlantic and thus allocate Total Allowable Catch (TAC's) to each nation with an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Atlantic. Based on their scientific research conducted on stock assessment, they will issue each complying nation with a respective quota for each specie. ICCAT ensures that sufficient management systems are in place and functional to ensure correct governance of each flag state as well as a comprehensive fishing vessel register. In short the Atlantic tuna is only as well governed as the flag state within that particular stock is being caught and ICCAT ensures with all its checks and balances that thus is so.

The ISSF has notably made recommendations to ICCAT on the global issues of Harvest Control Rules and predetermined Reference Points to avoid and prevent over fishing of the stocks. ISSF is pushing for a closed vessel registry and a cap placed on the total number of fishing vessels allowed to actively fish in the Atlantic. Currently ICCAT does have this in place, but the ISSF is rallying even further for the reduction of the total fleet capacity to more acceptable levels. Under the topic of Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD's) the ISSF is challenging ICCAT for the comprehensive recording of data in log books for all catches concerning these as well as a FAD closure such as what is implemented in the Pacific for 2 months of the year. FAD's are responsible for the majority of juvenile tuna catches. Currently ICCAT does not enforce total catch retention to ensure that all tuna caught is landed and not dumped at sea. Undesirable species and sizes are discarded at sea to allow for the more valuable species to be landed.

Whilst ICCAT remains on top of all the five RFMO's with regards to compliance within the Atlantic, there is still scope for improvement from the pilot scheme that is currently been implemented by the ICCAT Compliance Committee. All in all our Atlantic Ocean is in good hands so to speak and is one of the better managed global oceans.