Press Release: Commission welcomes unanimous adoption of Bluefin tuna recovery plan

The European Commission has welcomed the unanimous agreement reached earlier today by the Council of Fisheries Ministers meeting in Brussels on a recovery plan for Bluefin tuna. The agreement transposes into EU law, on a permanent basis, the recovery measures for Eastern Bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its annual meeting in November 2006 in Dubrovnik, Croatia (MEX/07/0403). The agreed Regulation actually goes further than the ICCAT plan, by requiring Member States to submit annual fishing plans in advance of the fishing season in order to ensure that the allocated fishing effort is compatible with the quota limits. This measure complements the decision by ICCAT earlier this month to oblige all contracting parties to submit fishing reports at the end of the season. Both new instruments are imperative if over-fishing is to be avoided, as they will substantially tighten the effectiveness of controls of fishing effort levels.