AGADIR, MOROCCO — The Northeast’s bluefin tuna industry came away from the Nov. 9-19 ICCAT meeting here dismayed once again by the US delegation’s ultraconservative stance on bluefin quotas despite recent scientific findings that indicate stocks on both sides of the Atlantic are recovering.
ICCAT stands for the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
While the western Atlantic quota ultimately remained unchanged at 1,750 metric tons (mt) for one more year, there was scientific support and strong political support from both Canada and Japan, which share the western allocation with the US, to increase the western quota to 2,000 mt.
Read the rest and much, much more in the January issue of Commercial Fisheries News. Read online immediately and download for future reference.