FOL is back to the World Maritime Week

Iratxe Rubio attended last week the International Eurofishing Congress in Bilbao, which included a thematic session on tuna freezer ships. The session took place on the 12^th February 2019, in the Bilbao Exhibition Centre, and was hosted within the World Maritime Week, where the naval, fisheries, energy and port sectors are gathered together for a set of international events including conferences, exhibition areas, and networking spaces, among others.

Two years ago, the focus of the tuna session was on European Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), this year, the spotlight has been tuna fisheries sustainability. Vittor Oroz, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Policy of the Basque Government opened the session and presented the Bermeo Tuna World Capital project. Josu Santiago, the head of the Sustainable Tuna Fisheries Management Area of AZTI gave a general overview of the tropical tuna stocks.

Other speakers at the conference were Jude Talma, the Principal Secretary of the Fisheries Department at the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture of Seychelles, who was concerned about the overfished status of the Yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean. Madame Koho Nlend, the Minister of Fisheries and the Sea of the Gabonese Republic, claimed for more investments to develop the Gabonian Blue Growth. The president of ANABAC and the managing director of OPAGAC pointed out all the efforts of the sector towards sustainable practices, from which an MSC certification and the APR certification “Tuna for Responsible Fisheries” are improving these fisheries management.

It was a great occasion for networking and keeping in touch with stakeholders of international tropical tuna fisheries.