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Under the able chairmanship of Professor John Beddington
(United Kingdom). Forty two delegates and observers
from eleven contracting parties, four collaborating
countries and three intergovernmental organisations
participated.
The main part of the discussions focused on the report
of the Seventh Expert Consultation
on Indian Ocean Tunas , and included:
- Incidental catches of non-target, associated and
dependent species;
- Staffing of the Secretariat;
- Participation in and establishment of Working Parties;
- Requirements for statistical reporting;
- Status of data submissions to the Secretariat;
- Confidentiality policy on data submissions;
- An examination of the implications of catches by
Taiwan Province of China on the scientific assessment
of tuna stocks.
The lack of reliable information on the status of stocks
remains an issue for most of the species covered by
the IOTC mandate. Nevertheless, concern was expressed
on the status of bigeye tuna stocks in view of the high
level of effort and increased catches of juveniles in
the fishery on FADs. The question of predation on longline
caught swordfish by marine mammals was also extensively
discussed as this has implications on both the economics
of the fishery and on removals from the stock.
At the close of the meeting, Mr. Renaud Pianet (France),
was elected chairperson for the coming biennium.
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first
session of the indian ocean tuna scientific committee
dates:
