RFMO Advocacy

There are four tuna RFMOs

IOTC – Indian Ocean Tuna Commission

WCPFC – Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission

IATTC – Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

ICCAT – International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas

NGO RFMO Map

About Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs)

Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) are international organizations established by treaties by countries with fishing interests in an area. Some RFMOs manage all the fish stocks found in a specific area (except the highly-migratory species), while others principally focus on highly-migratory species, notably tuna, sharks and billfish; these “tuna-RFMOs” are the ones we are interested in engaging.

RFMOs with the competence for highly migratory stocks manage the stocks through-out their range, which means both on the high seas and in areas of national jurisdiction via the members applying the RFMO measures in their EEZs.

  • The RFMOs are open to countries in the region (coastal states) and others with interests in the fisheries concerned.
  • For example, members of the IOTC include the European Union and Japan – both outside the Indian Ocean area but with tuna fishing fleets operating in the region.
  • Tuna RFMOs adopt management measures such as, limits on catch and/or fishing effort, bycatch measures, and reporting, monitoring and control measures for tuna and associated species (i.e. fish and non-fish by-catch).
  • The individual countries making up each RFMO implement these management measures separately via their national legislations.