The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC),
GIVEN that following Article XI of the Agreement for the establishment of the IOTC, Contracting Parties agree to provide statistical and other data and information that the Commission may need for the purposes of this Agreement and that nominal catch data, Catch and effort data, size data and fish aggregating devices data should be submitted annually to the IOTC Secretariat by 30 June the year following the fishing activities;
RECALLING Resolutions by IOTC on the Deadlines, Procedures for Data Submission and Statistical Reporting Obligations, notably Resolutions 15/02, 15/01, 14/05, 12/04, 10/11 [superseded byResolution 16/11], 11/04, 10/08 and 01/06;
RECOGNISING that funding is available from the Commission for developing CPCs to improve their data collection and submission capabilities;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT that the Scientific Committee (IOTC–2015–SC18–R) noted with concern the lack of information submitted by CPCs on total catches, catch and effort and size data for various IOTC species, despite their mandatory reporting status, and requested that CPCs comply with IOTC data requirements, given the gaps in available information in the IOTC database and the importance of basic fishery data in order to assess the status of stocks and for the provision of sound management advice;
CONSIDERING that the Scientific Committee recommended that the Commission develop penalty mechanisms through the IOTC Compliance Committee to improve compliance by CPCs that do not currently comply with the submission of basic fishery data requirements as stated in Resolutions 15/01and 15/02;
NOTING that incomplete reporting or no data reporting and that, despite the adoption of numerous measures intended to address the matter, lack of compliance with reporting obligations is still a problem for the Scientific Committee and for the Commission;
NOTING that several stocks remain not assessed and some others are assessed with substantial uncertainty, which lead to important risks of depletion of some IOTC species and negative impact in the ecosystem;
FURTHER NOTING that, in order that all IOTC fisheries should be managed in line with the principles of the precautionary approach, it is necessary to take measures aimed at eliminating or reducing non-reporting and misreporting;
ADOPTS in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article IX of the IOTC Agreement, that: