PEW Agenda "Dead On" for Saving Sharks & Bluefin @ ICCAT Meetings

Last night New York Times' blogger Andrew Revkin who pens DOT EARTH, posted about the ineffective formats of the ICCAT meetings happening right now in Brazil and the looming fear that this 48 country member body will yet again fail our oceans and the tuna and sharks that need their desperate help. It seems time is an issue as important topics like stopping shark finning are not getting ample allocation. What I do 100% agree with is the agenda brought to the meeting by the PEW folks. This is dead on and addresses the needs of both sharks and bluefin. Here is an excerpt from Andrew's post on the PEW agenda;

• Adoption of a zero quota for all stocks of the North Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery;
• A prohibition on the retention and landing of exceptionally vulnerable big eye thresher sharks, as recommended by ICCAT scientists;
• Concrete measures to ensure a significant reduction in fishing mortality of overfished North Atlantic shortfin mako sharks, in line with previous ICCAT Recommendations;
• Precautionary measures to cap fishing for blue sharks to prevent overfishing;
• An ambitious schedule for hosting a special porbeagle shark management meeting of representatives from interested RFMOs, as resolved in 2008; and
• A prohibition on the removal of shark fins at sea in order to improve enforcement of the shark finning ban and facilitate collection of species-specific catch data. This will help improve enforcement of the agreed shark-finning ban from the binding 2004 recommendation and facilitate more accurate collection of species-specific catch and landings data. This is far preferable to any proposal to allow shark fins to be transported at sea in bags or other devices that separate the fins from the body of the shark.

Stay tuned for more news tonight as decisions should be announced. Should the ICCAT delegation fail to help save the bluefin, a global outcry will start and be 100% supported by this site.