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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 6
February 2007
US retains ICCAT quota shares; loses key battle
DUBROVNIK, CROATIA – The 2006 meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) yielded both relief and disappointment for the United States.
“The bottom line for ICCAT? We did a lot better with swordfish than bluefin,” said Rich Ruais, a member of the US delegation and executive director of both East Coast Tuna Association and Blue Water Fishermen’s Association.
The US entered the meeting in the awkward position of having failed to harvest substantial amounts of quota for both species and knowing that other countries were ready to make a grab for the US quota share. This was something to be avoided at all costs because of the remote likelihood of ever getting lost quota back again.
The crisis for swordfish was resolved – for now anyway – by the willingness of the US to give a bit. In exchange for retaining its quota share, US negotiators agreed to allow 2,690 metric tons (mt) of uncaught swordfish quota from the last three years to be distributed over the next two years among Senegal, Morocco, Mexico, and Belize.
“We protected the US 30% share of the swordfish quota. That was our objective,” Ruais said. “It buys us a couple of years to revitalize our own fishery.”
Whether that revitalization happens largely depends on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which has implemented extensive closures of US waters that have decimated the US longline fleet.
“If by 2008 we’re still seriously under our swordfish quota, we’ll lose quota share,” Ruais warned. “ICCAT will give our quota to countries that are not up to our conservation standards.”
Eastern bluefin
After years of futile demands that the European Community (EC) adhere to its quotas, the eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna resource is widely believed to be on the verge of collapse.
Now that the US officially recognizes the role that mixing between eastern and western Atlantic stocks plays in the health of the bluefin fishery off the East Coast, it went to Croatia more prepared than ever to make the case for eastern conservation.
US scientists, led by Gerry Scott, NMFS’s top bluefin expert and chairman of ICCAT’s scientific and statistical committee, presented urgent scientific advice calling for: a 15,000 mt eastern Atlantic quota; a 30-kilogram, no-tolerance minimum size; and a three-month spawning closure including the month of June, when purse seine vessels, which catch 70%-80% of all bluefin in the Mediterranean, target spawning fish to supply the region’s massive farming operations.
Having none of it, the EC successfully pushed through a plan that included: an initial 29,500 mt quota that gradually declines to 25,500 mt by 2010; a June closure but only to longliners; rollover of uncaught quota to future years; and no requirement to pay back quota overages.
NMFS Director Bill Hogarth, who is serving a two-year stint as ICCAT chairman, said, “I am extremely disappointed with the inability of nations which harvest eastern bluefin tuna to adopt a meaningful stock recovery plan. Of particular concern is the blatant disregard of strong scientific advice on the need to substantially reduce catches.”
Western Atlantic
For western Atlantic bluefin, the US successfully pushed for the adoption of a proposal to lower the current 2,700 mt annual catch to 2,100 mt for 2007 and 2008 in recognition of resource concerns stemming in part from only average size 1994 and 1997 year classes.
Importantly, the US maintained its current percentage share of the western Atlantic quota although the actual US base quota for the next two years will drop from 1,489 mt to 1,190 mt.
ICCAT also adopted a cap on the amount of underharvest a country can roll over to the next year at 50% of the country’s base quota. This cap will mean a significant loss of uncaught quota the US has accumulated over the last three years.
The agreement also included a transfer of 50 mt of US underharvest to Canada in 2007 and 2008.
Lorelei Stevens
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