Washington, DC – The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is urging the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to follow the advice of its Scientific Staff and adopt conservation measures for threatened tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO).
“The time for IATTC member nations to act is now,” said Bill Fox, WWF’s vice president and managing director of fisheries who serves as vice chair of ISSF. ”Two years without conservation measures is two years too long.”
ISSF supports the recommendations of the IATTC Scientific Staff which include a 12 week closure of the entire purse-seine EPO fishery, a second 12 week closure for a limited area and restricting bigeye long-line fishery catch totals for several years.
“We want regional fisheries management organizations like the IATTC to succeed,” said ISSF president Susan Jackson. “But these stocks can not succeed if member nations fail to follow the sound scientific advice they’re being provided.”
The ISSF Board of Directors and its Science Advisory Committee recently red-listed EPO bigeye on the ISSF Status of the Stocks, bringing attention to the critical need for conservation measures to end overfishing.
The IATTC is holding its annual meeting in La Jolla, California next week. ISSF is attending with observer status.
The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is a global partnership among scientists, the tuna industry and the environmental non-governmental organization community. Its mission is to undertake science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing by-catch and promoting ecosystem health.
