MSC Pre-assessment made available

Project participants confirmed

Workplan made public

ICCAT held its second Intersessional Meeting of Panel 1. No new fishing licenses for vessels targeting tropical tunas have been authorized since 2019. The meeting introduced a draft recommendation focused on bigeye tuna conservation, with measures for yellowfin tuna, including the potential for new conservation actions and a revised TAC to be proposed at the 2024 Annual Meeting. Brazil's 2024 Fishing Plan also emphasizes strengthened compliance through onboard observers, digital logbooks, and research programs to improve data collection for tropical tuna management.

In the absence of the 2024 stock assessment report, the 2024 ICCAT Yellowfin Tuna Data Preparatory Meeting report was consulted; the Brazilian handline fishery is the only fishery for yellowfin in the western Atlantic, making its size-frequency data crucial for stock assessment. However, data from the past 10 years is available for only 3 years, prompting the group to liaise with national statistical correspondents to recover missing historical data.

The FIP has submitted a position statement ahead of the 28th Annual ICAAT Meeting. 

Fishers have begun to pilot the COPPA App while at sea; trials remain underway.

The FIP has conducted a review of alternative measures to reduce ETP mortality. 

The FIP published their position statement ahead of the 28th Session of ICCAT

FIP stakeholders have been engaged in meetings with the Brazilian government to discuss measures for sustainable fishing; the Brazilian delegation has updated and published their Annual Fishing Plan for Tropical Tunas

FIP stakeholders have conducted a performance and compliance analysis on the current logbooks used within the FIP; the stakeholders have confirmed that the logbooks are being utilized properly

FIP stakeholders have now completed on-land trials of the COPPA App among 4 vessels.

The FIP continues to enforce sanctions; examples of sanction enforcement from 2022 have been made available 

Position statement sent ahead of the 2022 ICAAT annual meeting

Brazilian fisheries authorities are cooperating with Global Fishing Watch (GFW) to improve monitoring and surveillance of fishing activities; yellowfin handline vessels are included as participants and are providing VMS data to GFW 

The FIP has begun implementing COPPA App (Crew Observer Photographic Protocol Application) training on land and at-sea; the project is currently in its trial phase, being implemented only on select vessels

The capacity management plan for tropical tunas has been updated for the 2022 fishing year

IPNLF provided a position statement ahead of the ICCAT meeting in November 2021; the IPNLF suggested to maintain the TAC, develop a FAD recovery system and maintain a three-month FAD closure.