Five international tuna conservation bodies, known as Regional Fisheries Management Organizations ( RFMOs), adopted on Friday a historical joint action plan, pledging to strengthen efforts to combat tuna overfishing and ensure sustainable use of the resources.

According to the plan, which is aimed at further harmonizing conservation and management measures for tuna stocks, the RFMOs will improve their systems for data sharing and tuna stock assessments, and will work to set up transparent criteria for the allocation of catch quotas.

Those have been regarded by the conservation bodies as crucial challenges to be immediately addressed, according to the plan which was adopted on the last day of their joint meeting held in the Japanese port city of Kobe.

As for strengthening strike against illegal fishing, the plan calls on members to support the development of small coastal states and help them combat illegal fishing.

The action plan also calls for common criteria and a unified review system to evaluate the performance of the five tuna conservation bodies.

The plan reads that "enhanced cooperation among RFMOs on a broad range of issues can increase their effectiveness and efficiency and provide improved management of all tuna stocks."

The RFMOs will also establish proper penalties and sanctions to deter illegal fishing and develop an international inspection system on the high seas under the action plan.

However, measures included in the action plan are nonbinding and the meeting provided no specific catch quotas for each member.

About 300 representatives from RFMOs and more than 60 countries and regions joined the five-day meeting starting Monday, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and some environmental groups participating as observers.

It was the first ever such meeting of RFMOs, which group the Western Central Pacific Ocean Fisheries Commission, the Inter- American Tropical Tuna Commission, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.

Source: Xinhua