Fishery managers and regulators are meeting in Malta for the 24th annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). This meeting in Malta is an opportunity to mitigate illegal fishing, said local NGO fish4tomorrow.
The fish4tomorrow campaign was formed in 2010 and aims to raise local consumer, restaurateur and retailer awareness on the importance of acquiring seafood from sustainable sources. Working together, Greenhouse, Sharklab Malta, GetupStandup and Din l-Art Helwa, will provide the tools necessary for consumers to make responsible choices that will ensure the viability of local fish stocks for generations to come.
Over the next seven days the ICCAT in Malta will decide whether to implement an electronic system to substantially reduce loopholes for illegal bluefin tuna trade, particularly within the Mediterranean.
fish4tomorrow has sent recommendations [1] to the director of fisheries in Malta urging that Malta push for the implementation of this system.
fish4tomorrow said in a statement today that bluefin tuna was on the brink of collapse until strict management plans were put in place a few years ago. Since then bluefin tuna is slowly stabilising however it is still considered to be endangered.
"One of the major threats it faces is illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing which will be addressed during the current meeting in Malta."
The current Bluefin Catch Document (BCD) system tracks fish as they are caught, transported, farmed, and traded on the world market. Unfortunately, the paper-based BCD has failed to fully address the problems of IUU fishing due to the ease of which such documents can be tampered with.
"There has been an effective way to stop this for some time – full implementation of the electronic bluefin catch documentation system, or eBCD." says George Camilleri, fish4tomorrow's secretary general.
"fish4tomorrow believe that migrating to the already developed electronic system illegalities and abuse in the bluefin tuna sector can be reduced significantly."
fish4tomorrow said tht it hopes that the issue of IUU and others will be resolved fruitfully during the ongoing ICCAT meeting in Malta.