Resolutions of the Indian ocean tuna commission and the direction of Thai deep sea fisheries

Present research is to study the impact of the scientific recommendations and management resolution for tunas by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) on the development and future direction of Thai high sea fisheries programme. IOTC is the intergovemmental organization established in 1996 in response to the global concern calling for sustainable management of common fisheries resources. The mandate of IOTC is to manage tuna and tuna-like fisheries in the Indian Ocean through studies on status and trend of the resources, transferring of technology and training, and adoption of management measures. The Indian Ocean’s tuna production is 963,886 MT of which the majority is skipjack, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna. Scientific data revealed that tunas are more abundant in the Western Indian Ocean than those in the Eastern Indian Ocean. Currently, there are 1,986 large-scale tuna vessels registered with (OTC, However, the fishing capacity in the Indian Ocean is a lot more than that recorded due to the presence of small-scale fishing vessels and unknown number of IUU fishing vessels. Excess fishing capacity has caused the declination of bigeye and yellow fin tunas. It is believed that catching of these species have already closed to or above the MSY levels. Likewise, skipjack tuna population is not in the state of much concern. IOTC has adopted recommendations and resolutions to manage tropical tunas on the following aspects, 1) regulating precautionary management approaches 2) limiting fishing capacity 3) regulating fishing with fish aggregation device (FAD) and 4) preventing, controlling and deterring of IUU fishing, IOTC measures have influenced the development of Thai high sea fisheries on 1) High sea fishing technology development which Thai will not be directly benefit from IOTC and should outsource elsewhere 2) tuna fishing ground for future Thai’s fleet should be areas of 0-20 deg South 50 deg-70 deg East 3) Development of Thai fleet is preference on purse sieners or small-scale longliners 4) Well-preparation for future introduction of quota system by submitting the fishing fleet development plant to IOTC as soon as possible 5) Promotion on technology to locate free school tuna instead of fishing technology of using FAD which is possibly banned in near future and 6) Review legal and institutional framework to enable the obligation of flag state, port state and importing state to deal with IUU fishing.