New stock assessment for yellowfin tuna by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission

Question for written answer E-003016/2024
to the Commission
Rule 144
Carola Rackete (The Left)

Yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean has been overfished for the past decade. Yet, on 3 November 2024, a new stock assessment was published on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission website which deemed the stock to now be 'green', despite years of 'red' overfishing and declining catches. I believe that this alarming stock assessment is flawed as a result of uncertain and missing data. The new stock assessment not only puts the yellowfin tuna species at risk of extinction, but is also likely to harm coastal communities and small-scale fishers along thousands of kilometres of coastline around the Indian Ocean. This alarming massaging of the science is shameful and opens the door to the neocolonial plundering of a valuable resource that is highly prized by vulnerable Indian Ocean communities as it plays an important role in their food security.

Will the Commission investigate whether the EU's industrial tuna fishing companies are paying scientists to provide commercially favourable yet skewed data to regional fisheries management organisations such as the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, and are rushing through fake stock assessments that are based on deliberately flawed scientific modelling?

Submitted: 18.12.2024