*EPF412 10/30/2003
U.S. Seeks Enforcement of Atlantic Tuna Reporting Rules
(Commerce Dept. official describes problems with quota compliance) (2480)

A U.S. Department of Commerce official says a regional group for managing and protecting stocks of Atlantic tuna should start getting tough on its own members about supplying required accurate catch numbers.

In October 30 testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, William Hogarth, assistant administrator in the department's National Marine Fisheries Service, said the lack of data for some stocks is crippling the compliance efforts by the group, called the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).

At the subcommittee hearing ahead of ICCAT's November 17-24 meeting in Dublin, Hogarth said that with late or inadequate data ICCAT's Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS) cannot make good stock assessments and the group cannot effectively manage the fish stocks.

"If countries are not reporting, intentionally misreporting, or reporting so late that the SCRS cannot do its job," Hogarth said in his prepared testimony, "ICCAT should deal with the issue as a compliance matter."

In an exchange with subcommittee members, Hogarth went so far as to indicate he believed some failures to report were deliberate, done by countries in order to evade enforcement of quotas on harvesting the depleted bluefin tuna stock in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Because the east and west stocks of bluefin tuna overlap, ICCAT's existing scheme for managing the stocks separately is widely viewed as inadequate. Even though European Union (EU) and other countries' fishing fleets operating in the eastern stock have a quota 10 times larger than that for the western stock where U.S. fleets operate, compliance in the eastern stock is viewed as much less effective. U.S. fleets have long accused EU fleets of harvesting migratory bluefin from the western stock.

Hogarth also mentioned that the Commerce Department is unilaterally investigating whether the EU is improving its lax data collection regime. Under the Pelly amendment of U.S. law the United States could impose trade sanctions against imports from other countries that act to undermine international conservation measures.

He also said ICCAT will finally convene a working group November 15 -- a full year since the United States insisted on one at the previous annual meeting -- to seriously examine bluefin management.

Hogarth is one of three U.S. commissioners scheduled to attend the Dublin meeting. Another is Glenn Delaney, who represents commercial fishing interests. Delaney gave examples in his testimony of ICCAT compliance violations by countries operating in the bluefin eastern stock area. He also described what he viewed as unscrupulous practices by Taiwanese fleets.

Following is the text of Hogarth's testimony as submitted for the record of the House Resources Committee's fisheries subcommittee, followed by an excerpt of Delaney's prepared testimony:

(begin Hogarth text)

TESTIMONY OF
WILLIAM T. HOGARTH, Ph.D.
ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR
NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE
NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES CONSERVATION,
WILDLIFE AND OCEANS
COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OVERSIGHT HEARING ON THE 18TH REGULAR MEETING OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF ATLANTIC TUNAS

OCTOBER 30, 2003

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to present testimony on issues facing the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its Eighteenth Regular meeting, to be held in Dublin, Ireland, on November 17-24, 2003. I am Dr. William T. Hogarth, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I am also the U.S. Government Commissioner to ICCAT.

On September 11th of this year, a member of my staff, John H. Dunnigan, testified before this body on international fisheries issues. Many of the issues raised during that hearing concerned ICCAT and are still germane. Rather than repeating earlier testimony, today I will focus more narrowly on what I see as the major issues for the upcoming ICCAT meeting.

Before getting into the specifics of the 2003 ICCAT agenda, I would like to make a few general comments about the Commission. ICCAT's membership has grown dramatically in the last few years, due in large part to the successful efforts of the organization to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. The increased use of total allowable catches to control fisheries and the development of quota allocation arrangements have also created incentives for countries to join the Commission. The United States is encouraged by this growth since it indicates that ICCAT is expanding its influence over Atlantic highly migratory species fisheries. In addition to increased membership, the Commission has also been contending with a significant expansion of its annual workload. Currently, the Commission meets for 8 days in the fall, in addition to convening a number of intersessional meetings throughout the year. To support this workload, ICCAT members must expend increasing amounts of time and energy. With this growth in membership and workload come greater challenges for the organization, and progress on some issues can be slower than we would like. On a more positive note, ICCAT will be considering ways to improve the functioning of its meetings this fall, and we have made a number of suggestions in this regard.

For the upcoming 2003 ICCAT Regular Meeting, the Commission will once again have a full agenda. Stock issues include albacore, bigeye, and yellowfin tunas, and Mediterranean swordfish. Due to U.S. insistence last year, ICCAT will convene a working group on November 15 to begin to seriously examine the issue of integrated bluefin tuna management. This is an extremely important issue to the U.S., since the data are clear that the east and west stocks of bluefin tuna overlap and our current management approach does not adequately take this biological reality into consideration. ICCAT must find ways to appropriately integrate the management of these two interdependent stocks. We expect that the first working group meeting will set out a structure for future work, which will include identifying and evaluating various management options and identifying needed research. We understand that the Commission will also be considering a recommendation from its science body to invest in a comprehensive, coordinated bluefin tuna research program that is intended to provide a basis for providing scientific advice on the risks and robustness of potential revised management procedures for bluefin tuna.

Another critical issue facing ICCAT this year is the election of a new Executive Secretary. There are currently five candidates, one of which is from the United States. I consider the U.S. candidate, Dr. Joseph Powers, to be the strongest candidate in the field. ICCAT needs a strong leader to ensure that the Secretariat can meet the challenges associated with the increasing Commission membership, rising number of conservation and management decisions, and dramatically expanding workload. I believe that the strong scientific and management credentials of Dr. Powers make him the perfect candidate for this position. The EC [European Commission] will be supporting their own candidate and they have made it known that they feel they should hold other positions of power within the Commission. While we feel that the EC certainly has an important role to play in ICCAT, we strongly believe that there must be equity within the Commission with regards to its administrative and political leadership.

A third area of focus this year concerns data. The Commission is facing a critical period. For some stocks, data are so inadequate or are reported so late that ICCAT's science body, the Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS), cannot conduct robust stock assessments. To make matters worse, bluefin tuna farming has made data collection and verification even more difficult for that species. Without good data we cannot effectively manage ICCAT stocks. The obligation to collect and report data is no different than the obligation to abide by a conservation measure. If countries are not reporting, intentionally misreporting, or reporting so late that the SCRS cannot do its job, ICCAT should deal with the issue as a compliance matter. This approach would be possible, since the allocation criteria developed by ICCAT in 2001 already link quota access to data reporting. Regarding farming, we will support efforts to ensure that there is a proper accounting of the fish entering and leaving these farming operations. ICCAT recently held a workshop to identify data collection and reporting problems and solutions, which did help to advance the debate. We are considering ways to address data issues in ICCAT, including those discussed at the recent workshop.

In addition, you might recall that the United States has expressed concern in the past about lax data collection and reporting by the EC. At the 2002 ICCAT meeting, the EC agreed to measures to improve their data collection programs. Two weeks ago, we met with our EC counterparts and discussed their progress on this matter. While they assured us that efforts were underway to improve the data situation, they were not able to provide specifics. I will continue to seek that information over the coming weeks and months. This is an important issue that will factor into a future decision concerning a request to certify the EC under the Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act. Similarly, I will also be seeking specific information from the EC regarding conservation measures that have been adopted by ICCAT to reduce that harvest of undersized bluefin tuna. At the urging of the United States, ICCAT adopted bluefin tuna measures last year to increase the absolute minimum size in the Mediterranean from 3.2 kg [kilogram] to 4.8 kg and, for the Atlantic and Mediterranean, reducing the number of fish that can be retained below 6.4 kg. ICCAT also is requiring the development of plans setting out how reductions in the harvest of undersized bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean will be achieved.

A fourth area of focus at ICCAT this year is compliance. Compliance issues have been and will continue to be one of the highest priority areas for the United States at ICCAT. Since it is included in earlier testimony, I will not repeat all the gains we have made in this area to date. The bottom line is that we believe more needs to be done. In addition to improving the implementation of existing measures, the overall compliance regime process should be streamlined and the scope broadened to improve the use of our trade and quota penalty tools. For example, the existing quota penalty provisions should be expanded to cover all species under quantitative harvest restriction, including marlins. In the same vein, we support efforts to improve ICCAT's monitoring and control regime. Effective monitoring and control measures are essential for implementation of ICCAT's rules. Proposals for establishing a vessel monitoring system program and spelling out flag state duties are pending before the Commission this year. Other monitoring and control matters will also be addressed in future years.

The other two U.S. Commissioners and I recently met with our European, Japanese, and Canadian counterparts to exchange views on the issues facing ICCAT this year. In addition, earlier this week we met with the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to ICCAT to obtain their advice on the matters I have raised here. These are critical steps in the U.S. position development process. The timing of this hearing is such that the final U.S. positions have not yet been set, but I have tried to indicate our general views in the major areas of discussion for the upcoming meeting. Undoubtedly, there will be other matters that arise at ICCAT, and each ICCAT member will have a different perspective on what is important. This is the nature of regional fisheries management organizations. For ICCAT, this is starkly true given the fact that the organization now has 37 members representing both developing and developed states.

Despite these challenges, I believe progress can be made on the issues outlined above. In that regard, I look forward to the support of those Congressional members and staff who will be joining the U.S. delegation in Ireland this year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to review the issues that will be facing ICCAT in November 2003. This concludes my testimony, and I would be pleased to respond to any questions that Members of this Subcommittee may have. Thank you very much.

(end Hogarth text)

Following is an excerpt from Delaney's prepared testimony:

(begin Delaney excerpt)

Violations fall across the entire spectrum of conservation measures -- from quota overages and the excessive harvest of juvenile swordfish and tunas to blatant failure to submit even the most basic catch data vital to scientific stock assessments. Serious violations fall across the spectrum of ICCAT nations -- from the least developed and most politically unstable to the richest and most technologically advanced. There follow just two examples among the more egregious problem areas, but the actual list is much, much longer.

The bluefin tuna situation in the eastern Atlantic is out of control. The relatively recent development of pen-raising technology for rapidly growing and fattening bluefin tuna for the high-valued sashimi market has created a black hole in the ICCAT management system. We will have to wait until November to see what the official numbers are, but we are hearing credible reports that bluefin landings in the eastern Atlantic may be as much as 50,000 metric tons -- substantially above the ICCAT quota and about twice the level recommended by the scientists. Much of this fish is going into farming pens and there are serious questions about the correct reporting and accounting of this harvest. The European Union is the major player in that situation, but the reality is that nearly all of the nations bordering the Mediterranean contribute to the chaos, particularly those on the north African coast.

Another tremendous concern is the performance of Taiwan. Fishing vessel operators based in Taiwan but hidden by many layers of paper companies have been the source of a fleet of pirate large-scale pelagic longline vessels using flags of convenience to operate in the Atlantic and throughout the world. These vessels are often referred to in international circles as the "IUU fleet" (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated).

Only due to strong pushing by the Japanese government, the Taiwanese government has responded half-heartedly. In addition, Taiwanese companies have now deliberately built a fleet of vessels that fall just under the 24-meter minimum length for application of most ICCAT measures. These 23.9-meter vessels have operated extensively in the Caribbean decimating shark stocks and causing serious billfish bycatch problems. Even those Taiwanese vessels that actually do fly the Taiwan flag and are large enough to fall under ICCAT jurisdiction are causing serious compliance problems with swordfish and bigeye tuna. The government of Taiwan either lacks the means or will to control this situation.

(end Delaney excerpt)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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