Fish stock conservation: technical measures for highly migratory species

PURPOSE : to bring together all the technical measures applicable to certain stocks of highly migratory species and incorporate them into Community law. CONTENT : the European Community participates in a number of regional fisheries orgabisations which provide framework for regional cooperzation on the conservation and management of certain stocks of highly migratory species. These highly migratory stocks incude a variety of species laid down in Annex 1 to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The main highly migratory species are tunas and certain associated species such as swordfish. The regional orgainsations in question are: - the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), of which the Community has been a member since 14 November 1997; - the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), which the Community has been a member since 18 September 1995; - the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), which the Community has applied to join. These orgainsations adopt recommendations laying down certain technical measures on, inter alia, authorised size and weight, and restrictions on catches within certain areas and time-periods and with certain gears. These recommendations become binding on the Contracting Parties if no objections are raised. The Community, as a Contracting Party to the ICCAT and the IOTC, must therefore apply these recommendations.�