The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) held a special session on Dec. 22 and agreed to a rollover of its existing quotas for tropical tuna in the eastern Pacific for 2021.
The decision comes after the commission failed to reach a consensus on the management of tropical tunas at its annual meeting earlier this month
The tropical tuna fishery includes bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna stocks and brings in billions of dollars’ worth of fish annually.
“This is much-needed action after the commission’s unprecedented failure at the beginning of December to come to agreement, which would have left this huge swath of ocean without any rules to govern these fisheries at all,” said Grantly Galland, an officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries program.
According to Galland, the pressure is on IATTC to prove that it takes its mandate to manage tropical tunas seriously.
“The world is watching now, and Pew looks forward to IATTC working urgently on harvest strategies that will allow fishing to continue, but with a robust system of rules and oversight in place,” he said.
According to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), the agreement to roll over all existing quotas “keeps crucial ‘status quo’ fishing effort and catch limit provisions and active FAD limits in place for 2021.”
