On Sunday February 5, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission voted to ban fish aggregating devices. A victory for environmental organizations. A controversial decision for European shipowners.
The struggle of environmental organizations has been heard. Fish aggregating devices (FADs) – an assembly of objects floating between two waters, naturally attracting marine life – could soon be outlawed for tropical tuna fishing. The decision dates back to February 5, when the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), meeting for three days in Mombasa (Kenya), endorsed the ban. For a limited period of seventy-two days. What’s on the horizon? A ban on support vessels, which could lead to their permanent abandonment. The proposal put forward by Indonesia brought together ten or so countries to win the vote. On the other hand, the European Union supported a gradual reduction in the number of FADs per vessel – from 300 today to 240 by 2028 – and their replacement by biodegradable devices. For European shipowners, this was a catastrophic resolution. For the French, Spanish and Italian fishing industries, the profitability of fishing is called into question, impacting the communities and economies that depend on it in the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius, where some of the region’s largest tuna canneries are located.
For NGOs such as Greenpeace, which has long been campaigning to limit the use of FADs, the preservation of tuna stocks is at stake, as is that of too many non-target species. Even if the principle of FADs is ancestral, their multiplication and modern technology (GPS and depth sounders) are leading to the emptying of the oceans. For the Bloom association, the European Union has completely lost sight of its mandate to protect the environment and marine life by opposing the measures proposed by Indonesia and its supporters. It denounces collusion between the European authority and industrial fishing lobbies, to the detriment of developing economies in the South.
