Fifteenth IOTC in Colombo

The Fifteenth Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) will be held in Colombo from March 18-22, preceded by the eighth session of the Compliance Committee. The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) is an intergovernmental organization established under Article 14 of the FAO constitution. It is mandated to manage tuna and tuna-like species in the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas. The meet held in Sri Lanka for the first time, will be attended by over 250 delegates and observers from nearly 35 countries in the Indian Ocean region and beyond. Representatives from major Distant Water Fishing Nations such as the EU, Japan, Korea, France, Taiwan, and China will also attend the meet.

Indian Ocean has much economic importance due to its vast resources of tuna, only second to those in the Western and Central Pacific. With the rapid development of fishing technology in the 60s and 70s commercial fishing for tuna grew in the Indian Ocean waters with the advent of distant water fishing fleets as well as domestic fleet expansion putting pressure on tuna resources. The developing scenario prompted the setting up of a management body for Indian Ocean tuna.

The objective of the commission is to promote cooperation among its members with a view to ensuring, through appropriate management, the conservation and optimum utilization of stocks covered by this Agreement and encouraging sustainable development of fisheries based on such stocks.

Sri Lanka has been actively involved in the tuna resource management activities for over half a century, from the time of the Establishment of the Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (IOFC) for the management of Indian Ocean tuna in 1968. Sri Lanka further strengthened its involvement in tuna management and scientific data collection with the shifting of the Indo-Pacific Tuna Project (IPTP) of the United Nations Development Program.

(UNDP) from the Philippines to Colombo in 1982. Sri Lanka hosted the project till it was wound up in 1990. Sri Lanka joined IOTC soon after the draft agreement for the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission was adopted by FAO in 1993 thus becoming a founder member of IOTC by joining it in 1994.