This Circular is issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, aiming to improve the capacity of China's tuna fishery on international convention compliance and promote the regulated and orderly development of the country's distant-water fisheries.
The international tuna organizations have formulated relevant conservation and management measures for the registration of fishing vessels, fishing logs, fishing quotas, restrictions on operating areas and fishing gear, minimum fishing specifications, ship position monitoring, catch reprinting and receiving observers, boarding inspection on the high seas, fishing certificate system, catch species protection, marine environmental protection, temporary fishing and fishing vessel leasing, fishing vessel identification, etc., and have continuously revised and updated them. Relevant regulatory measures to implement them are formulated and relevant key points are listed in the Annex. All tuna production enterprises and affiliated fishing vessels shall abide by the provisions of the above regulatory measures, strictly standardize production and operation activities, and timely and accurately submit relevant data. Any violation may constitute non-compliance, and serious violators may be included in the list of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels. All kinds of violations shall be seriously investigated and dealt with according to law.
In addition, China has not joined the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, and there is no fishing quota for southern bluefin tuna. To this end, the Ministry reiterated that it is prohibited for Chinese fishing vessels to catch southern bluefin tuna, and it is prohibited to retain and unload southern bluefin tuna on board. The mistakenly caught southern bluefin tuna should be released immediately and recorded in the fishing log.