Mediterranean Fishing Nations Adopt Conservation Measures

ROME, Italy (ENS) — --> Nations whose fishing fleets work the waters of the Mediterranean Sea have agreed on a series of new measures aimed at conserving the region's dwindling fish populations. The delegates also adopted new, stricter rules for tuna fishing in the face of warnings that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is wiping out the world's tunas.

The measures were adopted during the annual meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, GFCM. Held last week in Rome, the meeting was attended by 19 countries plus the European Community.

One of the meeting's main outcomes was an agreement on the use of new, more selective types of netting in bottom trawls. Changes to the shape of the mesh holes will allow small juvenile fish that have not yet reproduced to escape capture and return to the wild to breed. ...