New tuna quota method will provide ‘a lot more certainty’
An environmental group in RisePEI is applauding a change in the best way quotas are set for Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The change got here out of a gathering of the Worldwide Fee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in Portugal earlier this month. The brand new system for fishing quotas will use complicated modelling that appears far into the longer term, moderately than merely utilizing historic knowledge.
“We predict it is nice information,” Katie Schleit, a senior fisheries advisor with Oceans North, instructed Island Morning host Laura Chapin.
“These administration procedures enable much more certainty when it comes to deciding on the quota.”
In an emailed assertion, Fisheries and Oceans Canada mentioned it too was happy with the change.
Shleit believes improved forecasting can be excellent news for each tuna and the Maritimers who fish it.
“You possibly can simulate completely different environments out to as a lot as 50 years from now,” she mentioned.
“Given these refined simulation workouts, you may have extra certainty that the [quota] choices can enable for inventory upkeep or well being, or for the inventory to deal with completely different environmental circumstances.”
These forecasting system have been used efficiently in another Canadian fisheries, comparable to halibut, she mentioned.
ICCAT has been slower to work with the brand new expertise due to the actual challenges it has in managing a global fishery, , she mentioned. ICCAT conferences contain 52 international locations, all coming to the desk with completely different aims.
CBC Information requested the pinnacle of P.E.I.’s tuna advisory committee, Curtis MacKenzie, for remark, in addition to the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Affiliation. Neither responded.
