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For Immediate Release 12 October, 2000 Canada Breaks Spirit and Letter of International Fishing Rule DFO managers are using a quota allocated to Canada by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the regulatory body for tunas and swordfish, for a purpose other than it was intended. ICCAT allocated Canada a dead discard quota for the unintended bycatch of undersized fish, but the fleet is now using it to discard legal sized fish. Says Mark Butler "It's bad enough to throw away small swordfish, but to throw away large swordfish, just so the fleet can fish another species is so contrary to swordfish conservation, that the decision is almost incomprehensible." Conservationists have long criticized the swordfish longline fishery for the high level of discarding of undersized swordfish, bluefin tuna, several species of shark, and turtles (most of which are released alive although their mortality rate is not known). Yet in recent weeks the fishery has gone from bad to worse. With permission from DFO, the fleet is discarding legal size swordfish back into the ocean dead, fish weighing 300 and 400 pounds. How did this situation arise? In September the swordfish longline fleet caught all of its swordfish quota. In October the fleet wanted to go fishing for other tunas. However, it's not possible, using surface longline gear, to fish tunas without catching swordfish, so the industry asked DFO to allow them to add the dead swordfish they caught--small or big--to the dead discard quota. DFO managers said yes. DFO officials have told the Ecology Action Centre that it does not matter what happens to the fish--they could be placed in a landfill--as long as the fleet remains within the quota. "That comment is disturbing enough,S says Lara Gibson, volunteer biologist at EAC, Rbut ICCAT has said swordfish quotas in the North Atlantic are still too high, so even using their reasoning this action shows a blatant disregard for conservation measures." "If the fleet can't catch tuna without jeopardizing swordfish, then they shouldnUt be fishing," maintains Mark Butler. There are other methods of fishing for albacore and bigeye tuna that do not catch swordfish and other species, and these should be promoted by DFO. There are also fewer fishery observers on swordfish longline boats this year contrary to a strong recommendation by DFOUs own scientists that the level of coverage be maintained or increased. The level of observer coverage has dropped from 10% in previous years (1998 &1999) to 5% this year. The Ecology Action Centre sent a letter to DFO on Thursday September 28th asking that this fall tuna fishery be shut down immediately. -30- For more information contact Mark Butler and Lara Gibson at 429-2202 -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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