Maritime News
- As the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission begins its 2021 annual meeting, the item at the top of its agenda: how to save the overfished Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) stock from collapse.
- The crisis has pitted a group of distant-water fishing nations led by the EU, which hauls in the largest share of yellowfin, against Indian Ocean states like the Maldives, Kenya and South Africa.
- Two proposals are currently under discussion, one from the Maldives, backed by coastal states, many of whom are developing countries, and the other from the EU, which enjoys the support of other distant-water fishing nations like South Korea and Japan.
- Experts say the Maldives’ plan would result in deeper reductions to catches, a starting point to end overfishing and rebuild the stock, and is more equitable than the EU’s proposal.
Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), one of the most profitable fisheries in the world, is just a few years away from collapse. A meeting that began June 7 will be crucial in deciding its fate.
Exploitative industrial fishing practiced over decades by the EU, and increasingly important artisanal fisheries in coastal states have decimated the population. There is consensus among members of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), the intergovernmental body charged with managing the stock, that overfishing must stop.
But sharp divisions persist on how steep the cuts should be and who should be making them. It has pitted a group of distant-water fishing nations, led by the EU, which hauls in the largest share of the fish, backed by South Korea and Japan, against Indian Ocean states like the Maldives, Kenya and South Africa.
A rebuilding plan introduced by the IOTC in 2016 did not stop overfishing. Total catches actually increased between 2017 and 2019. The Maldives’ proposal for an update submitted in May received the backing of environmental NGOs like U.S.-based WWF and the U.K.-headquartered Blue Marine Foundation this month. The EU has also put forth a proposal in the run-up to the weeklong virtual meeting.
“We recognize that the Maldivian proposal is more ambitious and equitable than the proposal tabled by the E.U.,” a dozen NGOs said in a statement, adding that “further catch reductions will be required to achieve stock rebuilding within two generations.”
In 2019, the total yellowfin tuna catch stood at 427,240 tons, higher than the 403,000 tons that the IOTC’s scientific committee had prescribed. There are different estimates for how much the proposed plans will lower the total catch. Most suggest that the Maldives’ plan will achieve greater reductions than the EU’s.
A calculation by U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts found that the total catch would fall to 396,000 tons in the best-case scenario under the EU’s plan, but allows total catch to reach 417,000 tons, breaching the 403,000-ton limit. The Maldives’ plan would limit total catch to 383,000-393,000 tons, their analysis found.
The Blue Marine Foundation and International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF), a U.K.-based organization representing processors, retailers and distributors of tuna, also estimated that the EU’s proposed plan would lead to a total catch that is “significantly higher” than for the Maldives.
Even that, experts say, may not go far enough to save the species. WWF and others urged the IOTC parties to cap the catch a between 339,000 and 350,000 tons and described the Maldives’ plan as the “best starting point.”
The two plans on the table propose different mechanisms for effecting reductions. The EU is calling for cuts by gear type. The Maldives wants reductions to be imposed on IOTC members, with differential cuts for developing countries, small island developing states and developed nations. Under this plan, the cuts will be gear-neutral, so fishing nations will be free to distribute their share among different gear types.
Source : Malavika Vyawahare | Mongabay
Comments are closed.