Tuna resources management:

Sri Lanka under control

Current Membership of 28 countries

Australia, Belize China, Comoros, Eritrea. European Union, France, Guinea, India, Indonesia, IR Iran, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sultanate of Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, United Kingdom and Vanuatu.

Sri Lanka has been actively involved in 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 said Fisheries and Aquatic Development Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). The session began on March 18 and ends today.

Sri Lanka has 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.

The Minister said that the objective of the Commission was 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.

He said that the Agreement for the Establishment of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission was adopted by the FAO Council at its 105th Session in Rome on November 25 1993. The Agreement entered into force on the accession of the Tenth Member on March 27 1996.

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.

The United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provisions empowered the Coastal States with rights and jurisdiction over the resources in their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and vast oceanic areas beyond, he said.

Other Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) around the world: RFMOs of the nature of IOTC are in operation in other parts of the world with view to assess and manage fisheries stocks especially tuna in other oceans. These include the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and Western and Central pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), Minister Senaratne said.