Raül Romeva i Rueda

Em trobo en aquests moments preparant la meva participació a la reunió de la Comissió Internacional per a la Conservació de la Tonyina Atlàntica (ICCAT) dels díes 17 a 21 de novembre). El tema de la tonyina el segueixo de fa temps (trobareu nombrosos apunts a la categoria Mars i oceans (pesca, tonyina, arrossegament, Estratègia marina,…)d’aquest bloc) Hi participaré en tant que membre de la Comissió de Pesca del Parlament Europeu, així com en tant que recentment nomenat ponent de l’informe del PE relatiu a la COUNCIL REGULATION establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy(és a dir, l’aplicació dels sistemes de control comunitaris en el marc de les normes de la Política pesquera comunitària). Ja fa dos anys, quan es va aprovar el suposat pla de recuperació de la Tonyina, alguns vàrem manifestar (segueix…)

la nostra total decepció pel fet que els governs havien menyspreat de
manera flagrant les recomanacions del propi Comitè Científic de la
ICCAT en quan a limitacions de tones que es podien autoritzar pescar
(de fet parlàvem que més que un pla de recuperació, allò que havien
signat era un pla d’aniquilació). Però el problema és més greu, no
només la xifra adoptada llavors (30.000 tones) doblava les
recomanacions científiques (15.000), sinó que la manca de control ha
fet que les captures reals arribin fins a 60.000 tones (és a dir quatre
vegades les recomanacions científiques). A més a més més, cap dels
Estats de la UE ha proporcionat a temps la informació requerida per tal
de fer un seguiment d eles captures. Tot plegat fa que la reunió de
Marraqueix es prevegi altament important, ja que pot determinar,
senzillament, si hi ha futur o no per a la Tonyina Atlàntica. A
continuació adjunto alguns dels punts que per a mi seran important en
el marc de la preparació de la reunió i de la reunió mateixa:

Notes preparatòries per a la reunió:

This note will pick up a few aspects of the ICCAT meeting that are of interest to Greens. There are two stocks of bluefin in the Atlantic, one in the western Atlantic (fished by US, Canada, etc.) and one in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterrenean (fished by the EU and others). This note talks about the eastern stock.

Data on Catches

The most basic piece of information that can be had about a fishery is how much it catches and of what species. Without those data, nothing can be known about the fishery and no management measures can work. For years, ICCAT Contracting Parties (CPs) have submitted their catch data either too late, after the agreed deadline, or else not submitted them at all. This year, from 23 June to July 4, the scientists met to assess the status of bluefin tuna. Once again, they didn’t get the catch data that they were supposed to receive – in this case, the data on catches during the 2007 season. The scientists were so upset about this (quite correctly!) that they wrote a letter complaining about it to the ICCAT Chairman to pass on to the CPs. The most important paragraph is (the complete letter is in annex to this note): Now, upon completion of the fourth day (of 10 days) of the assessment meeting, we only have Task I (total catch) and Task II (catch/effort and size samples) from three of CPCs that have quotas in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, which amount to less than 15% of the Total Allowable Catch. Note that the deadline of submission for the 2007 data was June 9, 2008 (i.e. 2 weeks prior to the meeting).

The EU was one of the worst offenders in this. In the report of the SCRS (the scientific committee of ICCAT) there is a table showing when each country submitted data. The various EU Member States were late in almost all cases, and some countries submitted no data whatsoever (Denmark, Latvia). Since the EU has over half the quota for bluefin, it is clear that without EU catch data, no meaningful assessment of the state of bluefin can be conducted. My contacts on the SCRS say that a few days after they wrote the letter, the EU forwarded some data, but in an unusable form, so that EU data could not be incorporated into the assessment.

This is scandalous. Point out that the EU bears a major responsibility for the fishery, since they have over half the total quota, and ask why the data were not submitted on time and in the correct format. The EU claims that it wants to fish responsibly, to follow scientific advice, etc. and yet cannot get the most basic of data together.

Control of Fishing Activities

In May, Harry Koster, the head of the Fisheries Control Agency (based in Vigo) came to FISH to present a programme to oversee and coordinate the control activities of the Member States for bluefin in 2008 (recall that control is the responsibility of the Member States, not the COM). At about the same time, the COM released a long piece of propaganda explaining, in its own words: “the Commission’s analysis of the main trends which will shape the 2008 bluefin tuna fishery, and outlines how it intends to prevent a recurrence of the overfishing by the EU fleet which marked the 2007 season.”

In response, we requested that the Control Agency provide a monthly report on how effective the control activities had been, but that request was down-graded by the FISH Committee to a report, to be done in September, on the results of the entire season. As I write this (end October) we still have not received that report. One can speculate as to why, and there are certainly plenty of press reports around about how poor control has been and how the quotas have been exceeded again.

Evaluation of ICCAT

ICCAT has contracted three independent experts to evaluate how effective the organization has been in fulfilling its objectives (a number of other such international management organizations have done that as well). The report was delivered in September and it was extremely critical. As far as bluefin is concerned, the verdict of the experts was damning:

The judgement of the international community will be based largely on how ICCAT manages fisheries
on bluefin tuna (BFT). ICCAT CPCs’ performance in managing fisheries on bluefin tuna particularly in
the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea is widely regarded as an international disgrace and the
international community which has entrusted the management of this iconic species to ICCAT deserve
better performance from ICCAT than it has received to date. [Evaluation report, page 2]

Later on in the report, when talking about compliance, the lack of catch data and the status of the stock, they noted: It is a fundamental failing of ICCAT processes, of CPCs commitment to compliance, good governance and adherence to international law. [Evaluation report, page 61]

This evaluation will be a hot topic of conversation at ICCAT.

EU Mandate for ICCAT

Every year, the Council has to agree to a mandate for the COM at ICCAT (other such meetings as well). The COM has produced a draft mandate and onMonday, the Council agreed on what that mandate should be (top secret, though many of us are trying to get a copy). This outlines the margin for manoeuvre that the COM has at ICCAT to negotiate on such things as reviewing the bluefin recovery plan, how low a quota to accept, etc. Since all possibilities cannot be foreseen, there are daily (or more frequent!) meetings at ICCAT between the COM and the national delegations that attend, known as “coordination meetings”.

Bluefin Recovery Plan

At the ICCAT meting in Dubrovnik in 2006, a long term recovery plan for bluefin was adopted, though it was widely condemned by us, the NGOs and many others as woefully inadequate – we have written on various occasions to Joe Borg (Fish Comissare) to complain about the recovery plan and the EU’s role in it. TACs for 2007 through 2010 were set progressively at 29,500 – 28,500 – 27,500 – 25,500 tonnes. The plan was implemented for the EU by means of a regulation that applied for 2007 only, and the full long term plan was only adopted in Council in the fall of 2007, to enter into force for the 2008 season (Council Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007 of 17 December 2007 establishing a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean). It is this that has governed the EU’s fishery for bluefin in 2008. At its meeting in 2006, ICCAT agreed to review the recovery plan in 2008, and, if necessary, amend it in light of SCRS advice. So the big controversy in Marrakesh is to what extent the plan will be modified.

This year, the SCRS tried to do a new assessment of the bluefin stock (they were seriously hindered by the poor quality of data on bluefin, see above, including from the EU). Their conclusion is in an annex to this note, but essentially they said to cut the catches to about 15,000 tonnes (from a current TAC of almost 30,000 tonnes and current catches in the order of 60,000 tonnes).

IUCN Resolution

In Barcelona the IUCN adopted a resolution on bluefin, supported by Spain, that was quite radical. It called for an immediate suspension of fishing for bluefin in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Fishing should only resume once a proper system was in place to ensure recovery of the stock. It also called for closing the spawning areas to fishihg (complete text in an annex to this note). This will also put pressure on ICCAT to act.

Foto: Tonyines congelades destinades al mercat japonès. Font: Michael Gunther /WWF Canon.