Panama active in meeting seeking conservation of tuna

Panama participates in the meeting of subcommittee 1 International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), On this occasion, the agenda is focused on the presentation of the country’s catch report and the consensus on the approval of new conservation measures among the 52 member countries.

These management measures will apply to 123 Panamanian-flagged vessels with International Fishing and Fishing Support Permits registered to operate in the area regulated by this Commission.

Among the conservation and management measures being analyzed are; 72-day ban, use Fish aggregating device (FAD), maximum catch capacity, observers on board and finally catch distribution for member states with fishing rights that are part of this subcommittee.

Administrator from Water Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP), Flor Torrijos, directly participates in the ICCAT meeting.

Torrijos indicated that Panama aims to maintain the bigeye tuna fishing allocation of 1,717 tons and ensure that Panamanian-flagged vessels continue to conduct their operations in strict compliance with regulations.

Panama is at the meeting together with countries from OSPESCA hHe led a proposal on fisheries conservation and management measures for the catch of bigeye tuna covering a period of 3 years and a series of measures in accordance with the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SCRS), reported the director of ARAP from Portugal.

Within subcommittee 1, bilateral meetings were held with the European Union to agree on the principles that consolidate the formula that allows us to adjust the criteria that benefit member states (CPC), in line with resource sustainability.

Also, a bilateral meeting was held with the delegation of Belize, where experiences were exchanged on management in the process of traceability of fishery products.