Setting a catch limit does not guarantee that catches will stay within it. Adopting a bycatch measure does not ensure vessels are following it. Effective fisheries management requires both sound decisions and the means to verify the implementation of those decisions.
These issues will be central when the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meets November 16–23. The Commission has adopted management procedures for several stocks and established electronic monitoring standards. Its next decisions should address remaining weaknesses in catch controls and observer coverage, while strengthening protections for sharks and seabirds.
ISSF’s 2026 position statement focuses on these priorities: catch limits that reflect scientific advice and are respected in practice, continued development of management procedures, and better monitoring to support fisheries management and bycatch reduction.
Make Science-Based Catch Limits Work
Management procedures establish rules for responding to changes in stock conditions. By agreeing on those rules in advance and accounting for uncertainty, fisheries managers can make more predictable, precautionary decisions.
ICCAT has adopted these tools for Northern Atlantic albacore, Atlantic bluefin tuna, Western Atlantic skipjack, and Northern Atlantic swordfish. This is commendable progress, but more work is necessary to implement a complete harvest strategy. This year, the Commission should adopt the Northern albacore tuna catch limit for 2027–2029 that was generated by the management procedure.
Development must also continue for stocks that lack these tools. ISSF urges ICCAT to accelerate work on management procedures that consider bigeye, yellowfin, and Eastern Atlantic skipjack together. A dedicated meeting of its albacore management panel in 2027 is also essential to advance a management procedure for Southern albacore tuna.
Meanwhile, existing conservation and management measures need attention.
Yellowfin illustrates the importance of effective catch controls. Catches fell just below the 110,000-tonne total allowable catch in 2025, but ICCAT’s scientific committee remains concerned that current measures are insufficient to limit harvest. ICCAT members should fully allocate the catch limit among fishing parties or adopt another mechanism to prevent catches from exceeding it. The Commission must also adopt procedures to identify and address non-compliance with catch allocations to ensure these limits are being followed.
In several recent years, Eastern Atlantic skipjack catches exceeded the maximum sustainable yield estimated in the latest assessment. ICCAT should direct that a new assessment be conducted in 2027 to inform management decisions and the development of management procedures.
For Southern albacore, the latest assessment found the stock to be slightly overfished, although not experiencing overfishing, and less productive than previously estimated. The Commission should lower the catch limit to reflect that advice.
ICCAT needs to set catch limits that reflect scientific advice and adopt procedures to ensure those limits are respected. Advancing management procedures for tropical tunas and Southern albacore will help maintain that discipline over time.
Increase Monitoring Coverage and Strengthen Bycatch Protections
Reliable information about fishing activity is essential for managing tuna stocks and reducing impacts on other marine species. Human observers and electronic monitoring help document catches, assess bycatch, and verify compliance with conservation measures, including bycatch mitigation measures.
Yet ICCAT’s minimum observer coverage requirement for longline vessels fishing for tropical tunas remains just 10% — too low for reliable bycatch estimates. ISSF urges the Commission to increase coverage on large-scale longline vessels to an interim level of 20%, using human observers, electronic monitoring consistent with ICCAT’s standards, or both, as recommended by the ICCAT science committee.
ICCAT adopted electronic monitoring standards for purse seine and longline fisheries in 2023. Members should now use these standards to help deliver the increase to 20% observer coverage on large-scale longline vessels.
ICCAT’s seabird measure is outdated. To strengthen protections for endangered and threatened seabird populations, the Commission should also ask its scientists to review seabird bycatch mitigation techniques in 2027 so the measure can be revised to reflect current best practices.
For North Atlantic shortfin mako, the latest assessment found the stock remains overfished, although it is no longer experiencing overfishing. To support continued rebuilding, ICCAT should ensure total removals do not exceed 1,500 tonnes annually.
Finally, ISSF is again calling for all sharks to be landed with fins naturally attached, without exceptions. This requirement makes shark-finning rules easier to enforce and improves species-specific landings data.
Deliver Decisions That Can Be Implemented and Verified
ICCAT’s progress on management procedures and electronic monitoring shows that members can agree on improvements to fisheries management. This November, they need to apply those tools more widely and address gaps that undermine the effectiveness of existing measures.
Delegates should adopt catch limits consistent with scientific advice, establish mechanisms to keep catches within them, and agree on specific increases in observer coverage alongside stronger bycatch protections. Those decisions would further strengthen the suite of measures to ensure Atlantic tuna stocks and sensitive marine species are sustainably managed and provide better information to determine whether they are delivering results.
