Sustainability policy
We urge all agencies involved to apply sustainability of policies based on three fundamental premises, which are:
- A proper scientific analysis, this allows a determination of the status of the resource with regard to its mortality (whether this is caused by fishing or by natural causes). The possibilities of exploiting its fishing ground as well as the maximum sustainable fishing yield must be based on this data.
- The relevance of the social element, reflected in the generation of employment in the sector (both direct and indirect), and the families of fishermen who depend on this activity in order to survive.
- The appraisal of the stimulating effect is of the economy that fishing represents for the countries in which it takes place (many of these are developing countries who depend to a great extent on this industry to maintain their economies).
We also considered to be of vital importance to insist on the fact that the fishing of tropical tuna species with gillnets is today one of the most highly controlled and regulated methods in the world. Specifically, the boats of the Albacora Group I included in all the regulating lists of the RFOs and comply strictly with the approved management measures, including observer coverage.
As far as the fishing by-catch is concerned (in other words, the accidental capture of other species), it can be said that this is insignificant as it is estimated that this represents no more than 0,5% of the total catches of tuna caught with gillnets, while in the case of other fishing methods (e.g., longline or trawling) the percentages are appreciably higher.