Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-01-Speech-3-171"
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"en.20000301.11.3-171"2
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"The proposal before us as outlined in the introduction is a very important one. By now, my colleagues in the Fisheries Committee and indeed in the Parliament will be well aware of our commitment to technical conservation measures which are based on sound technical advice. The body charged with giving this advice based on sound scientific data is the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna.
This intergovernmental fishery organisation of which the European Union is a member is responsible for the conservation of tuna and tuna-like species in the Atlantic and the adjacent seas including the Mediterranean. This body was established back in March 1969 and is formally obliged to meet biannually, however the norm is that it meets annually and takes its decisions on the basis of scientific advice. The body then makes recommendations with a view to maintaining stocks.
This body has four standing committees comprised of national experts dealing with research and statistics, finances and administration, compliance and conservation and management measures. They have also four panels dealing with tropical tuna, with temperate tuna, the north and temperate tuna south and other species. These panels are powered to initiate regulatory measures on species covered by the convention. Proposals made by the panels are then presented to the Commission and the Commission in turn makes recommendations to the contracting parties. These conditions are binding, however contracting parties may lodge objections within a six-month period. The European Union is a contracting party and is obliged to embody such recommendations in Community law.
At a ICCAT meeting in November 1998 in Santiago de Compostela, changes were recommended to the rules relating to the landing of the minimum size of bluefin tuna. ICCAT also made recommendations in 1974, 1994 and 1996. As of now, it is illegal to land or sell bluefin of zero age and that of course is – in weight terms – less than 1.8 kilos. At its recent meeting in November 1998, the ICCAT standing committee on research and statistics was asked to perform a new assessment of the western Atlantic and eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna populations. The information provided would then assist the organisation in considering developing and improving stock rebuilding plans.
It was agreed that the SCRS should present a study at the 1998 meeting. It was intended that this meeting be presented with various possible recovery options with a view to maximising sustainable yields by taking into account alternatives or possible levels of recruitment and mixing of stocks. It was intended that the study should indicate monthly closures to purse seine, in order that the closures would be effective for the conservation of bluefin stock.
Following all of the research, the meeting agreed to a selective closure rather than a general prohibition of fishing for tuna in the Mediterranean with purse seine during the period 1 August to 31 August.
It is important to protect the tuna fishery for future generations. Bluefin tuna is the world’s most expensive fish fetching up to EUR 90 000 per ton at the auctions in Tokyo and, of course, the indication of the importance of the Mediterranean tuna is that it accounts for 70 percent of global landings in the region of 30 000 tons. 80 percent of it was landed by purse seine. The Mediterranean is an important spawning area for bluefin tuna so therefore it is important that the necessary measures be taken to enhance the protection of juveniles. The minimum size must be respected and technical measures must be implemented if we are to eliminate the zero age.
The measures agreed in November 1998 are binding since 21 June, I repeat 21 June 1999, months before the communication was forwarded to the Parliament’s Fisheries Committee and 9 months almost to the date. Now I believe, Commissioner, this is not good enough and that in the future we must learn and that reports must be submitted to the Parliament’s Fisheries Committee before decisions are taken, otherwise then we are nothing further than a rubber stamp and I know that is not the intention of the Commission or the Commissioner but let us learn from mistakes of the past."@en1
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