The Government of the Azores welcomed the approval of the extension of the exception scheme on the fishing of skipjack tuna. The voting took place Monday during the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

This exception scheme allows Azorean shipowners to catch this tuna species without an established quota limit. Skipjack tuna is widely used by the regional canning industry.

"With this voting, the Region will maintain the existing catch levels to date, with benefits to the income of regional fishers and canneries," the Regional Director for Fisheries said, adding that the average catches in the last five years is about seven tonnes.

The maintenance of the exception scheme for the skipjack tuna follows the assessment made by the Scientific Committee of ICCAT. This body considered that the fishing stock is within sustainable exploration levels from an environmental point of view.

During the ICCAT meeting, held in Genoa, Italy, it was also approved the proposal to increase the quota for bluefin tuna in the Atlantic, which, according to Luís Costa, "could mean that Azorean fishers might have the possibility to catch a certain quantity of bluefin tuna; the latter can reach high commercial value."

The Autonomous Region of the Azores also defended at the meeting the joint position positions of the European Union, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, which provide the creation of a working group that will study the impact of the use of artificial fishing aggregation devices (FADs) on the migration routes of tuna species.

The next annual meeting of ICCAT, the committee in charge of the management and conservation of tunas and similar species, will be held in Malta in November 2015.