AGADIR, Morocco, Nov 19, 2012 (AFP)
AGADIR, Morocco, Nov 19, 2012 (AFP)
Annual catches of the Atlantic bluefin tuna will rise slightly from next year, a green group reported Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of countries that hunt the much-prized species.
In 2013 and 2014, catches will rise to 13,500 tonnes annually for fish taken in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic compared with 12,900 tonnes at present, WWF said.
The new quotas were set by the 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in Morocco’s western port of Agadir.
The catch limits were set in a context of conflicting news about the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species listed by conservationists as endangered.
In 2006, ICCAT agreed to a 32,000-tonne annual catch limit and in 2008 set down progressively tougher limits as evidence mounted of dwindling stocks.
The current annual quota is 12,900 tonnes for the Mediterranean and east Atlantic and 1,750 tonnes for the west Atlantic, the goal being to encourage a complete population recovery by the end of this decade.
Last month, though, ICCAT scientists said they had found the first evidence of a bluefin revival in these zones, a finding that spurred hopes in some countries of an easing on catch constraints.
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is on the endangered list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Five of the world’s eight tuna species are classified by the IUCN as threatened or near-threatened, a situation driven mainly by demand for sushi in Japan.
