The Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act was amended by a US congressional committee on October 13. Interestingly, the group approved that the prerequisite for boats longer than 50...
Fishing
Unpacking Power Dynamics In IOTC May Lead To Better Decisions
Tuna RFMOs' decision-making has come under the spotlight especially in the past few years with various Commissions unable to reach consensus on several essential issues ranging from stock...
P+L Fishers Want Exception On Light Fishing For Live Bait
Pole-and-line fishers are asking the government of Ghana to grant them an exception and allow them to fish for their bait with lights. This fishing method is forbidden by national law,...
Astonishing Bycatch Surprises Tuna Crew
The captain of a tuna vessel operating in the Mediterranean must have scratched his head when he looked at the bycatch in his net. A gigantic sunfish 3.2 meters long and 2.9 meters wide was...
IATTC Gives It One More Shot To Agree On Tuna Conservation Measures
IATTC members will be meeting this week to try and reach conservation measures for tropical tunas in the EPO for the 2022-2024 period. This is the third attempt this year to get all the EPO...
Ecuador’s Seiners Now Trackable Via Global Fishing Watch
The Ecuadorian fleet is set on enhancing the transparency of its operations, thus a large number of its vessels are now trackable through the Global Fishing Watch (GFW) map tool. This is the...
The Diverse Interests That Prevent RFMOs Reaching Consensus
Why is it so difficult for tuna RFMOs to find common ground and come to an agreement when it comes to management measures for highly valuable stocks? The research paper ‘Mapping interests in...
Ghana Navy Thwarts Pirate Attack On Tuna Seiner
The Ghanaian Navy successfully managed to stop a pirate attack on a tuna vessel in the Gulf of Guinea last Sunday. The incident took place on October 10 at 2 am, about 170 km from the Ghanaian...
Oman Is On Track To Increase Tuna Landings
Oman reported an increase of 44.8 percent in fish landings, reaching 840,378 M/T in 2020. Artisanal fishing accounted for 793,419 M/T of which tuna catches amounted to 68,578 tons. At 8.6...
More Division In IOTC Over DFADs Proposal Vote
Pressure is growing for a special IOTC session to vote on a drifting FADs (dFADs) management proposal submitted by Kenya during the RFMO’s annual meeting in June. The document recommends a cut...
Nearly Half Of FAD Buoys Abandoned At Sea In PNA Waters
What happens to the drifting FADs (dFADs) launched by tuna purse seiners in the WCPO? Well, one latest study says that most buoys are abandoned at sea while there is also a high rate of...
Tuna Fishers Stand Against Desalination Plant In Australia
Tuna aquaculture firms, recreational fishers, and environmentalists are all up in arms over the South Australian (SA) government’s AUD 90 million (USD 66.7 million) plan to build a...
Tuna Tales Video Series Gives Glimpse Into EU P&L Fisheries
A YouTube video series called Tuna Tales – In Balance with Nature featuring artisanal tuna fishermen working in the outermost regions (including those from the EU) of the Atlantic and Indian...
Empty Promises, Mexican Local Fishermen Still Have No Permits
It has been over four months since a group of handline tuna fishermen in Ensenada, a port city on the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja California, took to the streets to protest against federal...
High DFAD Density In PNA Waters, Only 30 Km Apart
Certain PNA waters in the WCPO such Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru are filled with more drifting FADs (dFADs) than others, states the latest research into these devices. On average, the distances...
Readers Doubt NGOs’ Pressure Will Have The Desired Effect In RFMOs
The complex discussion fed by the mixed information given by both WWF and MSC around the sustainability of MSC tuna has confused the tuna sector and this is reflected in our readers’...
Most Tuna Nations Still Not Committing To Fishers’ Safety Treaty
The safety of crew members on board tuna fishing vessels has been at the forefront of conversations by NGOs and stakeholders in particular over the last couple of years. Several human rights...
Nearly 100,000 DFADs Deployed In WCPO Over 5 Years
Close to 100,000 drifting FAD (dFAD) redeployments took place from 2016 to 2020 in the WCPO, according to the latest scientific paper by scientists at the Pacific Community (SPC)...
Maldives Ministry Gives Struggling Tuna Sector Workers Income Aid
The Maldives Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture is giving financial aid to workers in the fishery industry who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry...
Tuna Fishing Groups At Loggerheads With Govts Over MPAs
Marine protected areas are at the forefront of global talks this week with more than 100 countries gathering in China for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The event that...