Indian Ocean species caught between local, EU interests
MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) – Indian Ocean countries, which want better protection for local marine life by updating fishing quotas and restricting harmful fishing methods, are facing opposition from the European Union, conservation groups say.
Officials gather in Mombasa, Kenya, on Friday for a meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission – a group of 30 countries that regulate and govern the ocean’s tuna. India plans to propose eliminating the use of high-tech gear for catching large quantities of marine life, and Kenya wants gear caps and more transparency on tuna fisheries.
But the EU, which is using the trapping methods that other countries want to limit, appears poised to resist the plans.
Bloom, a Paris-based non-governmental organization focused on marine protection, said the EU should reconsider its stance and join calls from other countries in the region to protect marine life.
“We urge the EU to abandon its previous colonial stance on quota allocation,” said Bloom’s scientific director, Frédéric Le Manach. “The EU must not allow history to repeat itself.”
More than 100 environmental groups have called for an end to the widespread depletion and degradation of marine species caused by industrial methods used to catch large quantities of tuna.
“Suckling millions of young tuna … is not okay,” said Seychelles ecologist Nirmal Jivan Shah. “What kind of society do we live in if the value of the ocean is reduced to a can of tuna?”
Yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean is currently classified as “overexploited” according to the Global Tuna Alliance.
Last year, the Commission failed to agree on what to do about EU concerns over issues such as the recovery of yellowfin tuna stocks and new driftnet management measures. The bloc said the failure to reach consensus was “a missed opportunity for the sustainable management of Indian Ocean fisheries”.
The EU is now proposing that countries introduce biodegradable driftnets. But Manach said the plan was a “joke” that would “do nothing to change the current catastrophic situation.”
The Associated Press reached out to the bloc’s IOTC delegation for comment.
Talks between officials from member countries in Mombasa are scheduled until Sunday.
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