CROATIA: World tuna organisation discusses fishing quotas for 2007, amid growing concerns that overfishing may push bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction

Record ID: 862243

  • Title: CROATIA: World tuna organisation discusses fishing quotas for 2007, amid growing concerns that overfishing may push bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction
  • Date: 18th November 2006
  • Summary: (EU) DUBROVNIK, CROATIA (NOVEMBER 17, 2006) (REUTERS) DUBROVNIK CITY WALL POSTER INSIDE CITY WALL ANNOUNCING ICAAT MEETING WIDE OF CONFERENCE CHAIR TABLE JAPANESE DELEGATE WIDE OF CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) JOHN SPENCER, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL ARRANGEMENTS UNIT AT EUROPEAN COMMISSIONS DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR FISHERIES, SAYING: "We would hope that when we push for rather radical measures to address the bluefin tuna management we would get support from other parties around the table. It's only going to succeed if we have active support and active commitment to introduce a strong rebuilding plan for the stock."
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia
  • City:
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA9DEVUFD0FHX39BUCAU1V0J7OH
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  • Story Text: The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICAAT), on Friday (November 17) started discussing annual tuna fishing quotas for 2007, amid growing concerns that overfishing may push bluefin tuna on the brink of extinction.
    The meeting gathered 600 delegates from 70 countries in the southern Adriatic city of Dubrovnik and sources say ICAAT will push for quotas to be reduced.
    Their intention is bound to meet opposition from several major tuna-fishing countries and tuna markets.
    European Commission for Fisheries warned in October of a danger of collapse of the Atlantic bluefin tuna stock, unless urgent and immediate measures were taken.
    "We would hope that when we push for rather radical measures to address the bluefin tuna management we would get support from other parties around the table. It's only going to succeed if we have active support and active commitment to introduce a strong rebuilding plan for the stock," the Commissions Coordinator for International and Regional Arrangements, John Spencer, told Reuters at the start of the conference.
    Scientists worldwide have been warning for almost a decade that fishing pressure on bluefin tuna must be substantially cut if a collapse of both the fishery and the stock is to be avoided.
    ICAAT commission estimates that present fishing effort is more than three times the level that would provide optimum return.
    International environmentalist group Greenpeace, supported by World Wildlife Fund, especially strongly criticises tuna fattening farms, where young tunas caught in the wild are kept in cages, fattened and killed before they spawn.
    "But it's not really the right way because they catch the young tuna before it spawns, and it also takes 15 to 20 kilograms of feeding fish to get one kilogram of tuna. So you have to decrease the other stock to feed the tunas in the cages and that is really ecologically absurd," said Antje Helms, a Greenpeace activist.
    Some 22,500 tons of this years catches of wild Mediterranean tuna have been put in captivity and farmed.
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