The fishing community here in Grenada can now breathe a sigh of relief, as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has lifted its ban for the island.
Earlier this month the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Fisheries and Cooperatives received information that the ICCAT had issued a notification prohibiting Grenada from retaining Tuna and Tuna-like species.
This was done in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of the Recommendation by ICCAT on Penalties Applicable in Case of non-Fulfilment of Reporting Obligations (Recommendation 11-15).
ICCAT is an inter-governmental organization established in 1966.
As a Contracting Party to ICCAT since 2017, Grenada, like all Member States, is required to submit annual fisheries data to the organization to aid in the scientific assessment and management of the pelagic fishery resources in the Atlantic region.
Since becoming a member of ICCAT in 2017, Grenada is said to have submitted time series data from 2017 to 2021.
Nonetheless, this data is reported to have contained several gaps and shortcomings for which ICCAT Secretariat made several communications to Grenada to have rectified.
Despite these attempts, there was no response, hence the imposition of the Recommendation to restrict Grenada from retaining (catching) these species that comes under the management of ICCAT.
Communications’ Coordinator in the Ministry of Agriculture Lands Fisheries and Cooperatives, Betty Ann Lazarus, says the Ministry took immediate measures to correct the data series and resubmitted the required information to the Secretariat.
Lazarus says this paved the way for the ban to be lifted.
