Bluefin Tuna Fish Endangered
Western Atlantic Bluefin Faces Collapse Due To Overfishing
Nov 17, 2008
To underscore the need to protect the Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna from extinction, Greenpeace activists recently dumped five tonnes of bluefish tuna heads in front of the French Fisheries Ministry in Paris in November (2008). They did this to mark the opening of the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Marrakech, Morocco.
Demands To Close Bluefin Tuna Fisheries
In 2006, reports Greenpeace, ICCAT set a 'Total Allowable Catch' of 29,000 tonnes for the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean that was intended to allow the stocks to recover. However, ICCAT's own Scientific Committee had recommended a sustainable limit of only 15,000 tonnes. The actual total catch in 2007 was estimated at between 39,000 and 54,000 tonnes according to a Report of the Independent Review for ICCAT by Dr. G.D. Hurry, ICCAT Performance Review Coordinator, and M. Hayashi and J. J. Maguire, September 2008.
Greenpeace has demanded that all ICCAT contracting parties (who represent 45 counties plus the European Community) close their bluefin tuna fisheries until marine reserves have been established to protect spawning grounds, fishing has declined to sustainable levels and a new management plan complying with the scientific advice is adopted and enforced.
North American Bluefin Tuna Fish Gravely Endangered
The problem as is serious if not more so in the western Atlantic.
"Canada has played a key role in pushing for stronger conservation measures in the eastern tuna fishery, but we need to demand strong conservation off our own shores too," said Beth Hunter, Oceans coordinator for Greenpeace Canada.
Although over-fishing of the fish in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean has been widely publicized, western-Atlantic stocks are in grave danger, says Greenpeace Canada. It adds that the World Conservation Union lists the western-Atlantic breeding population of bluefin as critically endangered.
The ICCAT, which aims to manage the fishery, is "concerned that the western stock has collapsed," said William Hogarth, chair of the commission, according to a report by Margaret Munro of CanWest News Service.
In 2006, stocks had declined so much that U.S. fishermen could catch only 12 percent of their commercial quota.
James Jones, of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, has said that fishing in international and European waters is a greater threat to the fish than fishing in U.S. and Canadian waters.
Scientists and officials widely agree the fishery must be curbed.
Greenpeace Canada, is urging supermarkets to take bluefish tuna off their shelves.
Aboriginal Fishing Rights
In a related development, native fishers in New Brunswick are unhappy with the quotas for their own reasons. They have protested that the quotas imposed by the Canadian federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence have put them at a disadvantage and disregard their legal fishing rights, the CBC has reported. The quota is set at 16 tonnes, worth $1 million.
The aboriginal fishers, who were exempt from the federal quotas up to 2007, say the current fishing season forces them to race for the fish, which lowers its value. They do not reject the idea of quotas, but want a separate quota and season that would apply to them.
They allege the quotas, worked out without consultation with them, favor corporations who “are just getting rich off the natural resources that belong to us," Chief Jessie John Simon, spokesman for First Nations tuna fishermen, has said.
Giants Of The Sea
It is difficult to get agreement on quotas. Even more difficult to police the high seas so that the quotas are adhered to. But if quotas are not set or fail to contain fishing, the bluefin tuna fish, one of the giants of the sea, will die out, as will the industry on which so many people rely.
Sources: ICCAT, Greenpeace, CanWest News Service, WWF.
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