{"id":137511,"date":"2023-10-06T16:23:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T23:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=137511"},"modified":"2023-10-06T16:23:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T23:23:26","slug":"eu-accused-of-neocolonial-plundering-of-tuna-in-indian-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/10\/06\/eu-accused-of-neocolonial-plundering-of-tuna-in-indian-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"EU accused of \u2018neocolonial\u2019 plundering of tuna in Indian Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asian News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Indian Ocean states say EU is pushing weakest conservation efforts for yellowfin tuna while EU \u2018distant fleet\u2019 hoovers up the most fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU has been accused of hypocrisy and neocolonialism\u201d for proposing insufficient measures to tackle overfishing of yellowfin tuna, while being the largest fisher of the prized species in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smaller than its Atlantic and Pacific bluefin cousins, the yellowfin tuna is one of the ocean\u2019s fastest and strongest predators. Also called ahi tuna, this species is massively overfished in the Indian Ocean \u2013 so much so that supermarkets and brands including Tesco, Co-op and Princes recently took the surprising step of joining scientists and environmental groups to call for tough action<\/a> to rebuild the $4bn population<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGOs demand action not promises as EU accused of \u2018failing to protect seas\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But although the Indian Ocean is bordered by Africa, Asia and Australia, the single biggest harvester of yellowfin in the area is the European Union. EU nations \u2013 principally Spain and France \u2013 operate a distant water fleet<\/a>\u201d of 43 vessels that fish the seas thousands of miles from home. In 2019 they caught 70,000 tonnes of yellowfin, more than Indian Ocean coastal states such as Iran (58,000 tonnes), Sri Lanka and the Maldives (44,000 tonnes each).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU ships are major users of fish-aggregating devices\u201d (FADs). These fishing aids are floating objects that cast a shadow to attract groupings of fish. By casting nets near FADs, catches can be increased with less effort but can lead to more bycatch \u2013 including juvenile tuna that have not yet reproduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a row has broken out between the EU and the tiny developing coastal states whose economies are directly dependent on the Indian Ocean. A former Seychelles fishery official has accused the EU of hypocrisy and neocolonialism\u201d, while the Maldives described the EU\u2019s proposals to rebuild yellowfin populations as woefully inadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Tuna being unloaded at Mal\u00e9. The fish are crucial for jobs and food security in the Maldives. Photograph: Carl Court\/Getty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues come in the buildup to next week\u2019s crucial\u201d emergency meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), the regulatory body in charge of managing tuna stocks. Both the EU and the Maldives, out of 33 parties involved, have made proposals to the IOTC to reduce overfishing and rebuild populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the much poorer Maldives, however, that has proposed<\/a> the toughest reductions. The EU is calling <\/a>for a much less dramatic cut. Neither include measures to reduce the use of FADs, which NGOs say drives population decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a \u2018band-aid\u2019 measure from the EU,\u201d said Adam Ziyad, director general of the Maldives fisheries ministry and vice-chair of the IOTC. It is nowhere near the required reduction levels to ensure we conserve the yellowfin stocks for our future generations. If they were serious, they would take a bigger hit and they would work with coastal states to have a better management plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 20% of the Maldives workforce is involved in fishing, mainly using pole and line rather than big nets. The country\u2019s proposal has the support in principle of other developing nation states, including Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania, according to Ziyad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowfin tuna is still in the red,\u201d he said. In the Maldives, we will take a 11% reduction in catch. It\u2019s a difficult task for us to tell fishermen they have to take that hit. It\u2019s important for jobs, for food security \u2013 it is still the most promising economic activity in the north and south of the Maldives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each proposal is complex, but according to the Global Tuna Alliance<\/a>, an independent body representing retailers and brands, the result is clear: the EU proposal would see 6% less yellowfin caught in 2021 compared with 2014 levels, while the Maldives proposal would mean a reduction of 14%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GTA welcomed both proposals but said the Maldives proposal was much closer\u201d to its own calls for a cut of 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither should be regarded as end points,\u201d the GTA said. It claimed that the Maldives proposal was not proportionate or equitable\u201d either, because it focused on purse seiners, a type of wide-net fishing that is not generally practised by Maldives pole-and-line fishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Yellowfin tuna are weighed at Mal\u00e9 fish market. Increasing numbers of juvenile fish are being caught before they can reproduce. Photograph: Carl Court\/Getty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental organisations, meanwhile, called the Maldives proposal the bare minimum\u201d in a letter to the IOTC heads of delegation co-signed by groups including the World Wildlife<\/a> Fund and Blue Marine Foundation. They noted, for example, that neither proposal addressed the use of FADs, which NGOs say worsens overfishing by disproportionately catching juvenile yellowfin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nirmal Shah, former chair of Seychelles Fishing<\/a> Authority and now the chief executive of Nature Seychelles, described the EU proposal as a delaying tactic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU is hypocritical, going around the world talking about overfishing. It\u2019s a neocolonial situation,\u201d said Shah. What the EU are telling us is they don\u2019t care about our coastal nations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jess Rattle, of the Blue Marine Foundation, accused the EU of being the biggest contributor\u201d to yellowfin tuna overfishing because of its dominance and use of FADs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, the EU has put forward a yellowfin proposal that is woefully insufficient, would not lead to the timely recovery of the stock and could in fact allow the EU fleet to increase its own catches, compared to 2019,\u201d Rattle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She welcomed the Maldives proposal, which urges catch reduction, as in line with IOTC management advice\u201d, adding that it calls for a much greater catch reduction than the EU\u2019s, takes into account the needs of developing coastal states, and shows truly fantastic leadership that we hope will be met with support from all IOTC members\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bid to grant MSC ‘ecolabel’ to bluefin tuna fishery raises fears for \u2018king of fish\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenpeace described the EU\u2019s proposal as outrageous and inequitable\u201d, and said neither proposal was enough to rebuild the tuna population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the criticism, an EU official said it strongly supported an effective reduction of catches to rebuild stock\u201d and had been instrumental\u201d in the IOTC\u2019s decision to convene a special session. The official defended the EU proposal as ambitious but realistic\u201d, with an obligation to reduce catches for all fleets, regardless of size, in a fair and equitable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With neither the EU nor the Maldives proposing to restrict FADs, it was Kenya and Sri Lanka that submitted a separate proposal to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya, the Maldives and like-minded coastal nations only fish in the Indian Ocean, so if the stocks get depleted we are the ones who suffer,\u201d said Stephen Ndegwa, assistant director of fisheries at Kenya\u2019s agriculture ministry. We will have nothing for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foreign fishing vessels, like the EU vessels, will move to other oceans, but we won\u2019t be able to move \u2013 and we will be stuck with no fish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The full article with Data Graphs of Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Data on the quantum of fish catch in the Indian Ocean by EU and other states is available at SOURCE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2021\/jan\/18\/ngos-demand-action-not-promises-as-eu-accused-of-failing-to-protect-seas\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asian News Indian Ocean states say EU is pushing weakest conservation efforts for yellowfin tuna while EU \u2018distant fleet\u2019 hoovers up the most fish. The EU has been accused of hypocrisy and neocolonialism\u201d for proposing insufficient measures to tackle overfishing of yellowfin tuna, while being the largest fisher of the prized species in the Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}