The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas adopted a swordfish management plan, but Japan and China blocked efforts to strengthen the shark finning ban

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has adopted a management procedure for Atlantic swordfish, but another proposal to strengthen the commission’s ban on shark finning was derailed by Japan and China. ICCAT held its annual meeting from 11 to 18 November and had already completed a management strategy evaluation for North Atlantic swordfish. NGOs like The Pew Charitable Trusts pushed for the ICCAT – a regional fishery management organization (RFMO) – to adopt the strategy to move away from annual quota negotiations toward an automated system that makes management decisions less political and more science-based. Esther Wozniak, a manager on Pew’s international fisheries team working in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific fisheries, said ICCAT’s adoption of a management procedure for swordfish is an important milestone in the RFMO’s efforts to modernize fisheries management. “Thanks to leadership over many years from Canada, the United States, and ...