Commissioned by the Fishery Bureau of theMinistry of Agriculture, and at the invitation of the Secretariat of the InternationalCommission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), a Chinese science delegationconsisting of three teachers Zhu Jiangfeng, Yang Xiaoming and Guan Wenjiang fromthe International Compliance Research Center for Pelagic Fishery of ShanghaiOcean University (SOU) attended the 2017 ICCAT SCRS (Standing Commission ofResearch and Statistics) Annual Plenary Session held in Madrid, Spain fromOctober 2 to 6, 2017. The researchers attending the meeting were from 24contracting parties, including China, South Korea, the United States, Norway,Russia, Namibia, South Africa, Liberia, Tunisia, Cote d'Ivoire, Uruguay,Mexico, Morocco, Canada, the European Union, Algeria, Senegal, Japan, Nigeria,Angola, Venezuela, Mauritania, and the ICCAT secretariat. China’s TaiwanProvince, ISSF (International Seafood Sustainability Foundation), WWF (WorldWildlife Foundation), PewCharitable Trusts, The Shark Trust, the Ocean Foundation and otherorganizations also attended the meeting as observers. A total of more than 80 peopleattended the meeting.
Chinese delegation attended all the agendas of the meeting as planned and reported tothe Science Commission on China's statistics and submission of tuna fisherydata in the Atlantic Ocean in 2016, progress in scientific research and the National Report. The researchwork of ICCAT's Scientific Work Groups, Sub-species Work Groups and majorproject groups for the Fiscal Year 2017 was reviewed. In particular, theresource assessment of the Atlantic Bluefin tuna, Swordfish, Albacore tuna andMackerel sharks was reviewed. These species are the main catch or bycatch of China’sfleets. The forthcoming ICCAT contracting-party conference in November thisyear will redefine the fishing quota for bluefin tuna and swordfish for thenext few years, and China should therefore focus its attention on these issues.The delegation also participated in reviewing the ICCAT scientific researchprograms and budget for 2018-2020.
Finally, the meeting focusedon discussing and adopting the recommendations for resource conservation and management submittedby the Scientific Commission to the ICCAT contracting parties. Among them, the recommendations with asignificant impact on China include the improvement in data collection andelectronic submission procedures, the status and management recommendations oftropical tuna resources, measures to reduce bycatch, conservation measures forbluefin tuna, swordfish and albacore tuna resources, and proposals to increasescientific observer coverage. Chinese delegation commented on the rationalityof the recommendations, in particular, questioned the necessity for an increasein the coverage of science observers and proposed revisions against theserecommendations. Through this conference, we have mastered the scientific researchtrends of ICCAT in the coming years and laid a foundation for China’sparticipation in the contracting party’s conference and the discussions andadoption of the proposals on resource conservation and management. Given thecharacteristics of ICCAT scientific research framework and managementdecision-making mechanism, China, as a member of ICCAT, can increase itsresearch work on key species of tuna fishery in the Atlantic in the future,especially the research into resource assessment, so as to win the right tospeak in the regional fishery management organizations and safeguard theinterests of China's offshore fishing.