THE marine conservation organisation Oceana and the Pew Environment Group have both criticised the decisions made at the ICCAT meeting in Recife, Brazil saying that the weak management measures will not work.

Oceana said that the ICCAT had ignored the only acceptable measure that would have recovered this depleted stock: the total closure of the fishery.

Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana in Europe remarked: "ICCAT's credibility was in the hands of the Contracting Parties during this meeting. Now, they have shown their inability to properly manage large pelagic species by adopting measures that respond to both political pressure and the industry's demands. They've ignored the real status of fish stocks and the immediate risk of losing this tuna species.

“The risk of collapse has already been addressed in previous assessments, and there is scientific consensus about what's happening right now. But instead they've decided to implement a TAC of 13,500 tonnes. This is not sufficient to recover the stocks and it will lead to individual vessel quotas that are too low to economically sustain fishing activities. This will definitely encourage underreporting of catches and illegal fishing," said Pastor.

He added: "ICCAT has now definitely lost its credibility and its CITES' turn to avoid the collapse of this species."

ICCAT also took up the issue of regulating shark fisheries in the Atlantic, but according to Oceana this meeting once again represented a lost opportunity for these vulnerable species.

"Sharks are being caught without any limit at all in the Atlantic, and there is little hope now for getting these fisheries regulated in the near future," said Rebecca Greenberg, shark campaigner with Oceana. "ICCAT scientists recommended that mortality for shortfin mako be reduced years ago, and the Commission still has not done anything to implement this. ICCAT is ignoring the advice of its own scientists, and dooming species to overfishing and imminent stock collapse."

Susan Lieberman, Director of International Policy for the Pew Environment Group said: "Since its inception, the ICCAT has been driven by short-term commercial fishing interests, not the conservation ethic implied by its name.

"Only a zero catch limit could have maximized the chances that Atlantic bluefin tuna could recover to the point where the fishery could exist in the future.”

“When you adjust the new catch limit to account for over-fishing and rampant illegal fishing by some countries and add in ICCAT's poor enforcement and compliance record, the prospects for the recovery of the once-abundant Atlantic bluefin tuna are dismal," added Lieberman.

"ICCAT's lack of action on sharks was also disappointing,' said Matt Rand, coordinator of the Shark Alliance and director of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group. "ICCAT took only one small step forward for sharks, but we regret that no other steps were taken to protect many other vulnerable shark species whose populations have declined significantly in recent years. Member countries represented at this meeting also missed a golden opportunity to mandate that all sharks caught in the Atlantic be landed with their fins attached."

Up to 73 million sharks globally are caught and killed annually to support the shark fin trade. In most areas there are no management regimes governing sharks, and with fins commanding up to $300 per pound, fishermen have ample motivation to catch and kill as many sharks as possible.

"We regret that there is no regional fisheries management organization focusing on sharks," added Rand. "Sharks need to be managed sustainably just like any other commercial fishery. Allowing sharks or any other species to collapse from destructive fishing practices is no way to manage the ocean's resources."

"ICCAT's actions and inactions highlight the need to take these issues to CITES -- the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species," concluded Lieberman. "The ICCAT fisheries managers have shown scant interest in the long-term preservation of the key resources they are supposed to manage. It is now time to turn to other bodies to seek the needed protections that ICCAT has failed to provide."

CITES is the global treaty governing international trade in endangered and threatened plants and animals. Its next meeting is in March, 2010, in Doha, Qatar. Pew has announced its support for a proposal by Monaco to list Bluefin tuna as a threatened species at the CITES meeting, which would prohibit international trade of this fish.