New UN fisheries management body announced

A new UN fisheries management body to stop over-fishing in the south-west Indian Ocean and ensure countries in the region continue to profit from the resource, was announced Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The first task of the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) will be to improve data collection to fulfil its aim of promoting the sustainable fisheries management. FAO studies show that in the entire Indian Ocean 75 percent of fishery resources are currently being fished at their maximum biological productivity while 25 percent are being over-exploited.
Data is poor for the south-west Indian ocean but it is known that catches have grown by over 10 percent over the last decade, with landings in 2001 of 319,000 tonnes, representing an all-time high. However FAO statistical reviews show that as much as 33 percent of catches are not identified by species, making responsible management difficult. "These data gaps are why it's important to have a body like SWIOFC to help improve data monitoring and collection," said Jean-Francois Pulvenis de Seligny, Director of FAO's Fishery Policy and Planning Division.
The new commission, which has 14 member states along the east coast of Africa and several islands in the region, decided to set up a scientific committee to improve data collection at its first meeting on April 18-20 in Mombasa, Kenya.
The FOA said the fish resources of the coastal waters of the south-western Indian Ocean constitute a major source of food for many near-shore communities and fish exports are a vital source of national income. Madagascar and Mozambique, for example, have important shrimp fisheries, as do Tanzania and Kenya, to a lesser extent. However the majority of fishing boats operating in the south-western Indian Ocean come from countries outside the region such as Spain, Taiwan, Japan, France and Uruguay.
Though SWIOFC's mandate focuses on coastal fishing, a parallel agreement on regional co-operation on high-seas fishing of non-tuna resources is being negotiated. Tuna resources are managed by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, based in Seychelles. Those talks will result in a mechanism that will let countries set binding management regulations for responsible high-seas fishing. The negotiations are expected to be finalised in February 2006.