The Pew Environment Group said it is “guardedly optimistic” the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) will adopt its proposals this year to crack down on illegal fishing in their upcoming meeting in İstanbul.
The Pew Environmental Group, headquartered in Washington, D.C., will push ICCAT’s 48 member governments during its 22nd regular meeting to strengthen its controls against illegal fishing and work toward sustainable fishing.
Lieberman said the group will urge ICCAT members to tighten controls to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna and other species, to stop overfishing and support sustainable fishing methods and to conserve porbeagle, silky and other threatened sharks.
The group recently released a report that found illegal and fraudulent fishing of bluefin tuna on the rise. According to the report, the amount of bluefin tuna traded globally last year exceeded the official quota by 141 percent. Two years prior, that gap was 31 percent.
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