The tuna purse seiner Txori Aundi. A significant number of vessels will have to abandon bluefin tuna fishing. (Photo: Tuna Seiners)

Bluefin tuna cut will have devastating impact

SPAIN
Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 23:40 (GMT + 9)

The Spanish Fisheries Confederation (CEPESCA) harshly criticised the decision adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to slash bluefin tuna captures by 40 per cent next year.

This measure “modifies a recovery plan implemented barely two years ago and without giving it the time it needs to fulfill its objectives, uselessly throwing away all the effort undertaken so far by the Spanish fleet,” the Confederation lashed out.

In addition, it supposes that “the European Union (EU) as much as the ICCAT has yielded irresponsibly to the pressure of environmentalists and countries that do not have interest in this fishery, condemning this fishing subsector to its virtual disappearance.”

The cut approved by the ICCAT in Brazil will imply the closing of 50 per cent of the trap net fisheries, the scrapping of part of the artisanal fleet of the Straits of Gibraltar, of the longliners and pole and line fleets of the Mediterranean and the virtual disappearance of purse seiners, CEPESCA stressed.

The amendment to the Multiannual Bluefin Tuna Recovery Plan of the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean reduces the total allowable catch for the entire Eastern stock up to 13,500 tonnes, and diminishes to a single month - from 15 May to 15 June - the time purse seiners can fish.

For the president of the Andalusian Federation of Fishing Shipowners (FAAPE), Pedro Maza, “the fleet of the Straits will be subjected to a linear reduction of approximately 40 per cent of its quota for all modalities, and due to the scarce quota that it already had in that modality [222 tonnes], once the mentioned reduction is applied, there will be an important number of vessels that will have to abandon the fishery.”

This fleet, consisting of 36 vessels, “will have to turn towards other alternative fisheries or unfortunately resort to definitive paralysation, for which we will immediately request the anticipated corresponding aid in the Recovery Plan imposed by the EU,” Maza added.

In terms of the Mediterranean surface longliner and pole and line fleet, the manager of the Carboneras Association of Fishing Producers, Simon Perez, said that it will have to remain shut down for about five months.

“At present there is no company nor crew that can withstand five months out of work. What do we do with our shipowners and sailors?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Diego Crespo, president of the Fishing Producers Organisation of Trap Net Fisheries OPP-51, estimates that for the trap net sector “this new, such drastic reduction of the quota implies a blow, that will lead to the disappearance of two of the four trap nets which have joined this campaign, with the serious socio-economic damages and loss of direct and indirect positions that this activity generates.”

“We are working to evaluate a way to diminish the hard impact as much as possible that this new reduction is going to suppose in an Andalusian region, that of Cadiz, highly dependent on this sector and already depressed,” Crespo added.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of CEPESCA, Javier Garat, was sorry “that Spain lacked the political weight sufficient to defend the interests of its fleet.”

For the 2009 season, Spain counted on an initial bluefin quota of 4,116,500 kg, 23.4 per cent less than the initial number of the previous season.

The purse seiner fleet of the Mediterranean, composed of six ships, finalised the season with 1,160 tonnes of bluefin tuna, 29 per cent less than last year. The longliner and pole and line (91 units) fleets closed the fishery with 559 tonnes, 27.9 per cent less, whereas the eight trap nets finished with 1,209 tonnes.

“The United States left the convention very angry because its proposal consisted of establishing a total prohibition on the tuna and this means that the threat grows still more over our trap net fisheries,” said Marta Crespo, spokesperson of the Trap Net Fishing Producers Organisation, to La Voz Digital.

The next convention to define the future of the bluefin tuna will be held in March 2010 in Dakar.

Related articles:

- EU welcomes deal to cut tuna catch by 40 pct
- In search of a future for bluefin tuna

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com