<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/momentous-sustainable-fishing-rules-adopted-for-atlantic-ocean-swordfish/>
"In the late 1990s, swordfish had been so overfished in the North Atlantic
Ocean that its population faced the possibility of collapse. The dire situation
sparked boycotts and conservation campaigns in honor of the highly migratory
species, a predator that can move at nearly the speed of a cheetah and slash at
prey with the long, flat bill that gives it its name. Managers set a quota and
a minimum catch size to protect juveniles, the stock began to recover and it
was declared rebuilt in 2013. And now, with a landmark move made Nov. 18, that
recovery appears secure.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT),
which manages a wide range of fish stocks across the entire Atlantic Ocean and
adjacent seas, adopted a “harvest strategy” for swordfish (
Xiphias gladius)
during its annual meeting, held in Cyprus Nov. 11-18.
Government representatives and conservationists hailed the move, which sets up
largely automatic science-based fisheries management decisions for the long
term. The harvest strategy, which is designed to be resilient to climate change
effects, had been in the works for years, but its adoption wasn’t guaranteed
until the final gavel fell, with all parties in consensus.
“To get this across the finish line was a big success,” Esther Wozniak, an
international fisheries manager at the Philadelphia-based think tank Pew
Charitable Trusts, told
Mongabay. Pew had long advocated for the development
of a swordfish harvest strategy.
Shana Miller, a project director at the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Foundation
who also worked on the harvest strategy, told
Mongabay that its adoption was
a “momentous step forward for ICCAT” and would “lock in sustainability” for the
highly sought-after species.
The adoption of the swordfish harvest strategy was a high point of the weeklong
meeting that conservationists said brought mixed results. ICCAT parties showed
a strong commitment to developing harvest strategies for a number of other
species, came to an agreement on managing tropical tuna after years of
wrangling and passed measures to fight illegal fishing and improve the safety
of observers who document catches on fishing vessels. However, the tuna
agreement came with certain concessions to industry that could contribute to
overfishing. Experts also said the meeting went badly for shark conservation
efforts, notably because a measure to stop shark finning was not adopted."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/280-murderbot/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
