Read on Twitter
Ok, I'm ready to talk about it. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission concluded its annual meeting late Friday night (5am Sat for those calling from Europe) with no agreement on any management for next year for the...wait for it...tropical tunas. The namesake species. 1/ https://twitter.com/GrantlyG/status/1335073507001200640
By this, I do not mean that they could not agree on a way forward and therefore had to roll over the existing measure. I mean that they did not even agree to that. 2/
Starting on Jan 1, there will be no management of #tuna fisheries in the entire eastern tropical Pacific. No limits on the amount that can be caught or the amount of fishing. No closed areas or seasons. No gear restrictions. No FAD management. 3/
No limits on the number of boats or their sizes. No restrictions on boats coming from other oceans to fish in #IATTC waters. There will be NO management of tropical tuna fisheries. 4/
This was a shocking development and was incredible to watch. Now, all eyes point to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, meeting this week, to adopt something and keep the entire Pacific Ocean from being unmanaged. 5/
A formal statement from @pewenvironment, with quotes from our Director of International Fisheries - Ms. Amanda Nickson - can be found here: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases-and-statements/2020/12/07/pew-no-rules-for-tropical-tuna-fishing-is-an-alarming-development-for-eastern-pacific-ocean 6/
Early media coverage from the meeting can be found from @undercur here: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/12/07/iattc-fails-to-agree-on-2021-conservation-measures-raising-concern/ 7/
And from @AtunaNews here: https://atuna.com/news/iattc-meeting-utter-flop-members-fail-to-reach-consensus (paywall). 8/
We have got to see governments call for an emergency session of the #IATTC in order to stop this from happening on Jan 1. #tuna #management #conservation 9/9
