ICCAT : A marathon rather than a sprint toward global sustainability and biodiversity targets

Alessandro Buzzi, WWF Global Tuna Lead said:

“This year ICCAT fishing countries made some remarkable progress on key fisheries management methods, monitoring and control measures and strategies to better address climate change. It’s nonetheless concerning to see significant shortcomings to manage sharks. These outcomes continue to threaten ICCAT’s commitment to balancing economic interests with environmental stewardship, risking a misalignment with global sustainability targets.”

Important steps forward for the management of tropical tuna

WWF welcomes the adoption of conservation and management measures for tropical tuna stocks in the Atlantic Ocean. After years of negotiations, ICCAT Contracting Parties reached consensus on catch limits for bigeye tuna and a new quota allocation key that takes into account the interests of the different fleets exploiting these stocks. Beside the allocation, CPCs agreed on several measures to manage fish aggregating devices (FADs) for the next three years  and a clear timeline that, starting from 2025, will ensure the transition to fully biodegradable and non-entangling FADs by 2028. These measures are expected to minimize the impact both on juveniles and on marine habitat. 

Management Strategy Evaluation Roadmap: stronger long-term management of stocks

WWF is pleased to see that ICCAT continues its paradigm change toward long-term management of the stocks and agreed to also include North Atlantic swordfish, blueshark in the Atlantic, bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna, southern albacore and Atlantic skipjack in a roadmap for the so-called Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE).  This process allows scientists and decision-makers to set objectives and adjust catch limits based on stock status, ensuring collaborative, transparent, and less politically driven management. This will contribute to maintaining the stability of the fisheries and markets, while minimizing the risk of depletion for the population in the future.

Disappointing results on sharks

WWF is, however, deeply disappointed that ICCAT failed yet again to adopt a “fins naturally attached” policy, a crucial measure to prevent illegal finning, improve species-specific data collection, and promote sustainable shark conservation. The proposal was tabled for the 16th year and has seen an unprecedented number of countries supporting it (80% of Contracting Parties). In addition, no agreement could be found on bycatch mitigation measures that would reduce the mortality of depleted shortfin mako sharks and other threatened shark species. ICCAT's failures highlight the urgent need to ratify the 2023 UN BBNJ Agreement to protect marine biodiversity and close biodiversity management loopholes.

On the positive side, the inclusion of Atlantic bluesharks in the above-mentioned MSE roadmap marks the first time ICCAT, and any tuna RFMO, agreed on the development of such a robust management tool for a shark species. CPCs also confirmed last year's commitment to protect mobulid rays and whalesharks, and discussed plans to propose similar protections for basking and white sharks next year.

Significant Progress on monitoring and fighting against IUU

ICCAT made significant progress this year to advance the fight against illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fisheries. The adoption of a recommendation to protect the health and safety of observers is a prerequisite to the ability to perform their duties on board of fishing vessels. Fisheries observers are critical for sustainable fishing, as they collect essential data on catch amounts, bycatch, and compliance with regulations. WWF congratulates Contracting Parties that have agreed to additional measures of the existing ICCAT provisions to regulate transhipments in order to align them with the FAO voluntary guidelines and to address the need to strengthen the monitoring of transhipment activities of tuna fisheries in the Atlantic. 

Finally, WWF welcomes the continued work on the electronic monitoring system (EMS) as a crucial step toward increased transparency in fisheries and is pleased that ICCAT recognized the specific challenges and issues that are faced when applying EMS for small-scale fisheries. The commitment to strengthen enforcement of the existing driftnet ban in the Mediterranean and extend it to the Atlantic in order to hopefully adopt a decision next year 2025 is a crucial first step. Illegal driftnets take tens of thousands of vulnerable and protected species including marine turtles, marine mammals and threatened sharks each year and contribute to tons of lost fishing gear. 

END

Contact: