Social media blackout imposed at Indian Ocean Tuna Commission meeting

Today in Seychelles
21 hrs ·
Wednesday 23 May 2018
Fisheries
Social media blackout imposed at Indian Ocean Tuna Commission meeting

Seychelles delegates attending the 22nd session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission meeting in Bangkok this week report to TODAY that the European Union and Japan have imposed a social media blackout on the event, restricting them from sharing outcomes from the debates.
by S. Marivel
While the reason for the blackout is still unclear, it is expected that outcomes from the week-long conference will be revealed once the debates have come to an end from a formal source.
Dr. Nirmal Shah, the chief executive of Nature Seychelles, is representing Seychelles at the conference together with some Seychelles Fishing Authority, Ministry for Fisheries, and Foreign Affairs representatives. He is also accompanied by Keith André, head of the delegation for the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen for the Indian Ocean.
“The EU and Japan at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s 22nd session have prevented us from telling our people what’s going on with our tuna in our waters,” Dr. Shah explains on LinkedIn. “No using social media they say – why?” he adds.
Protecting coastal states like Seychelles
While the aim of the sessions is to find ways to improve management of the tuna stocks, with the hopes of ensuring sustainability, quotas for coastal states like Seychelles are at stake.
According to Mr. André, the main topic on the agenda apart from the measures in rebuilding the Yellowfin stock is the fair and equitable allocation criteria between the coastal states and the flag states.
“A group of like-minded coastal states believes that 100 per cent of the catch taken in an EEZ by a foreign vessel should accrue solely to the coastal state,” Mr. André explains to TODAY. “However, some distant water-fishing nations present believe that catches in the EEZ should be solely attributed to the flag states, namely EU, Japan, Korea and China.”
A number of logical questions arise at this point, the foremost being whether those states would allow coastal states like Seychelles the same rights had we been fishing into their EEZ. This point was also raised by Mr. André.
It should be noted that Seychelles is the only country to include representatives of the artisanal fishermen in their delegation for the third consecutive year.
The 22nd session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission regrouping 32 country delegations including Seychelles and 11 accredited observer groups including the ‘Fédération des Pêcheurs Artisans de l'Océan Indien’ (FPAOI), are meeting in Bangkok this week to review the status of the tuna stock in the IOTC area of competence.
Media blackout refers to the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be voluntary, or may in some countries be enforced by the government or state. In this context, no official censorship was enforced however, delegates were asked to refrain from sharing information on the debates via social media.
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