The U.S. successfullynegotiated a commitment to rebuild stocks of North Atlantic swordfishwithin ten years at the Inter na tional Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in November.
Also during the meeting,for the first time ever, ICCAT adopted trade sanctions againstone of its parties, Equatorial Guinea, for violating ICCAT conservationmeasures for bluefin tuna, and adopted a trade embargo on swordfishagainst non-parties Honduras and Belize.
Several other countriesface penalties for exceeding their 1998 quotas, including Morocco,Libya, Brazil, Uruguay, and China. ICCAT also named ten countriestargeted for future sanctions because they engage in illegal,unregulated, and unreported fishing for Atlantic tunas.
