Next June Honduras could become the newest member of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).
Its Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) last year presented an application to the organization to become Cooperating Member. The country wants to develop its local tuna industry and launch a purse seiner fleet in the Pacific Ocean.
This would allow Honduras to have a fishing quota and open export markets for tuna and would be an alternative to reduce the fishing effort of traditional resources.
Members of the IATTC are Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, United States, France and Japan, among others.
Admission to this organization could take place in the framework of the 85th meeting to be held in the port of Veracruz, Mexico, next June. Member countries of the Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA) have already met to discuss regional points of the agenda that will be deliberated at the event.
Participants to this preparatory meeting, which was held in the city of San Jose, Costa Rica, were the head of the Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Digepesca), Rene Elizabeth Gutierrez and the representative of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy Group, Julian Suazo.
The IATTC is responsible for the conservation and management of tuna and other marine resources in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). It is also responsible for the study of the biology of tuna and the recommendation of appropriate conservation measures to allow fish stocks to maintain levels that provide maximum sustainable catches.