Gov't backs ICCAT decision to reject the tuna trade ban

Chen Tien-shou, deputy director of the Fisheries Agency under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture, said Taiwan supports a recent resolution by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) that a complete ban on trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is not necessary, as measures and restrictions are in place to ensure the recovery of bluefin stocks.

Chen said ocean fisheries, including bluefin, are replenishable resources, and added that Taiwan believes ICCAT's conservation measures and restrictions on bluefin fishing are sufficient to maintain the species' natural replenishment.

ICCAT is an inter-governmental group responsible for managing bluefin stocks.

Chen said Taiwan has left 700 metric tons of its bluefin quota unfilled since 2006 and has not transferred it to other countries.

He noted that Taiwan catches between 1,000-2,000 tons of bluefin a year, but all by small fishing boats ranging from 20-100 tons, and all in the Pacific Ocean.

The agency will present Taiwan's position, which gives consideration to both the conservation of the species and the development of the fishery industry, at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference being held in Doha, Qatar March 13-25.

The agency, which expressed opposition to a ban on bluefin fishing last month, was responding to a call by Greenpeace International last week for Taiwan's government to back a proposal by Monaco to ban the trade.

The conference will address several proposals to regulate the trade in Atlantic bluefin and a variety of shark species, as well as red and pink coral, but the bluefin issue is likely to be the most contentious, pitting Asia against the West.

The ban on cross border commerce in Atlantic bluefin proposed by Monaco during the conference was rejected 68:20.

An amendment proposed by the European Union on banning the trade in bluefin with the ban scheduled to be implemented in one-and-a-half years was also rejected.

Japan has already said it will ignore any ban on the prized fish, highly sought after for sushi and sashimi. About 80 percent of the bluefin catch ends up in Japan.

Industrial-scale harvesting on the high-seas has caused bluefin stocks to plummet by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the two regions that would have been affected by the ban.

Greenpeace International has expressed regret that the CITES conference has failed to protect the endangered bluefin stocks and accused Japan, Taiwan and several other countries of ignoring protection plans and pushing the species toward extinction.

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