World Tuna Day

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) role is to promote cooperation among the Contracting Parties (Members) and Cooperating Non-Contracting Parties of the IOTC with a view to ensuring, through appropriate management, the conservation and optimum utilisation of stocks covered by the organisation’s establishing Agreement and encouraging sustainable development of fisheries based on such stocks.  The Commission has four key functions and responsibilities which enable it to achieve its objectives. They are drawn from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and are: to keep under review the conditions and trends of the stocks and to gather, analyse and disseminate scientific information, catch and effort statistics and other data relevant to the conservation and management of the stocks and to fisheries based on the stocks; to encourage, recommend, and coordinate research and development activities in respect of the stocks and fisheries covered by the IOTC...

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) is the regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) responsible for the conservation and management of tuna and tuna -like species, associated species and their ecosystems, throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean, from Canada, in the north, to Chile, in the South. Tunas and similar species are highly mobile. They move freely therefore through maritime areas under different legal regimes, from one area under the national jurisdiction of a coastal State to that of another state and beyond to the high seas. In order to ensure an appropriate conservation of the stocks and their sustainable management , cooperation is therefore essential between all the interested parties. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has included tuna and tuna like species in the category of “ highly migratory species ” which are governed by the provisions of its Article 64 that establishes this duty to cooperate “ with a view to ensuring c...

Tuna and tuna-like species are very important economically and a significant source of food. They include approximately forty species occurring in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans and in the Mediterranean Sea . Their global production has tended to increase continuously from less than 0.6 million tonnes in 1950 to above 6 million tonnes today. The so-called principal market tuna species are the most important among the tuna and tuna-like species from the catch weight and economical view points. They are landed in numerous locations around the world, traded on the nearly global scale and also processed and consumed in many locations worldwide. In 2010, their catch was approximately four million tonnes, which represents about 66 % of the total catch of all tuna and tuna-like species . Most catches of the principal market tuna species are taken from the Pacific (70.5% of the total catch of principal market tuna species in 2008), with the Indian contributing much more (19.5% in 2...