More efforts needed to conserve Atlantic marine life

A shortfin mako shark Governments at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) have adopted several important provisions to conserve threatened fish species—such as bluefin tuna and silky sharks, but failed to act on other issues.
ICCAT is the international body that manages tuna fisheries across a quarter of the ocean’s surface, including the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
ICCAT members agreed to implement and fund an electronic bluefin tuna catch documentation (eBCD) system to replace the current paper one, to track the valuable fish from where it is caught at sea to the market. The current paper system is alleged to be rife with fraud and misinformation, masking industrial-scale overfishing which has reportedly exceeded legal quotas. Pew’s recent Mind the Gap report found that in 2010, the amount of Mediterranean bluefin tuna traded surpassed the ICCAT quota by 141 per cent.
“It is critical to improve the traceability of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species that has been pushed to near-historic lows. This week, ICCAT member governments committed to making electronic tracking a reality, a decision that will help close the gap between quotas and what is traded,” said Lee Crockett, who directs Atlantic bluefin tuna conservation at the Pew Environment Group.
ICCAT governments also revised requirements to list vessels operating illegally to help combat illegal fishing. Previously, this applied only to those longer than 20 metres, but now can include vessels measuring 12 metres or more, and are expected to be inspected in port by government officers. There is documented evidence of vessels measuring 12-20 metres using banned driftnets to catch bluefin tuna and swordfish.
The fisheries body also granted a reprieve to one of the world’s most vulnerable sharks, mandating that if silky sharks are accidentally caught, they must be returned to the sea. Cutting sharks loose when they are still alive if caught in fishing gear is supposed to lend them a real chance at survival. The measure aims to reduce the targeting of the species by those eager to sell their fins on the global market.
ICCAT members, however, did not adopt measures to protect porbeagle sharks.
“The measure to protect silky sharks is an important step in the face of their dramatic population decline. We congratulate ICCAT members for acting to conserve sharks three years in a row,” said Susan Lieberman, Director of International Policy at the Pew Environment Group. “However, we are deeply disappointed that the international community has again failed to speak up for the porbeagle shark.”
In addition, the meeting failed to make progress on requiring gear alternatives that limit the number of sharks caught, despite available options to prevent this from happening.
“Protecting one shark species a year and adopting no other measures for their conservation will not be enough to ensure the survival of these animals across the Atlantic Ocean,” said Max Bello, senior advisor on global shark conservation at the Pew Environment Group.
Other species gained some protection through efforts to control the lucrative and expanding fishery for tropical tunas off the coast of West Africa. ICCAT agreed to close a small area to the use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) – artificial structures that are deployed in the ocean to attract schools of fish – for two months of the year. FAD use results in large numbers of sharks being caught, along with juvenile tuna. Their uncontrolled proliferation is causing widespread ecological destruction and waste of vulnerable marine life. The members decided to track FAD use and set scientifically-based catch limits for yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the Gulf of Guinea.
“Overall, we are pleased to see some improvements in countries taking their commitments seriously, and movement toward strong consequences for overfishing and breaking the rules,” Lieberman said. “But ICCAT members have much more to do if they are to restore and guarantee healthy tuna and shark populations across the Atlantic Ocean.”
The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nongovernmental organization that works globally to establish pragmatic, science-based policies that protect our oceans, preserve our wildlands, and promote clean energy.
The ICCAT convention area is 1/4 of the global ocean surface (24.8%) - 89,894,286 km square.