Protection of fauna: Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme AIDCP, conclusion by the European Community

PURPOSE: to approve, on behalf of the Community, the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision 2005/938/EC on the approval on behalf of the European Community of the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme.

CONTENT: the purpose of the 1998 Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme is to reduce, progressively, the mortality rate of dolphins to close to zero through the setting of annual limits. The current cause of the high mortality rate on dolphins can be directly linked to the fishing of tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. A further feature of the Agreement is the long term conservation of tuna stock within the same waters. Given that EU fishermen actively fish tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the Community has a direct interest in preserving, both for ecological as well as economic reasons, a sustainable tuna fish stock in the geographically defined area.

Through the Kingdom of Spain’s membership of the “Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission” (IATTC), the Community is now in a position to approve the Agreement and fully assume its duties and responsibilities, under both the Agreement and the Convention establishing the IATTC. Accordingly, the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme has now been approved on behalf of the Community. The President of the Council has been authorised to designate the person(s) empowered to deposit the instrument of approval with the Government of the United States of America.