08 Dec 2008: Opinion
Regulators Are Pushing
Bluefin Tuna to the Brink
The international commission charged with protecting the giant bluefin tuna is once again failing to do its job. Its recent decision to ignore scientists’ recommendations for reducing catch limits may spell doom for this magnificent – and endangered – fish.
It’s one of the biggest, fastest, and most beautiful fish in the sea. It has captured the imaginations of people from Homer to Salvador Dali. But end-times loom for the giant bluefin tuna, whose chances of survival were greatly diminished in late November by the international commission charged with its care.
Once again, that body – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas – refused to take strong action to prevent the runaway overfishing of the giant bluefin tuna in its sole remaining, yet rapidly disappearing, stronghold: the Mediterranean.
One of the sea’s few elite warm-blooded fish, bluefin tuna can reach three-quarters of a ton, swim at highway speeds, migrate across oceans, and visit coasts of distant continents. They’re also the world’s most valued fish (once they’re dead), and therein they hang by the tail.
Too valuable everywhere to be allowed to live anywhere, the giant bluefin tuna may be worth more money to a person who kills one than any other animal on the planet, elephants and rhinos included. A few years ago, a single 444-pound bluefin tuna sold wholesale in Japan for $173,600. One fish.
A 43-nation commission has public-trust management authority and a mandate to conserve. But the International Commission for the
Greenpeace
Bluefin tuna can grow to more than 1,000 pounds and migrate the full length of the Atlantic
The increasing rarity of bluefin—and escalating worldwide sushi madness—has only intensified fishing efforts. And as the fish diminish, demand further drives up the price of bluefin meat. As extinction nears, the fishing keeps escalating.
Fishing has already demolished bluefin populations. The last few decades have seen gold-rush bluefin fisheries disappear off Brazil, in the North Sea, and the southwest Pacific. Wherever they still swim, they are aggressively hunted.
Atlantic bluefin breed in only two places: the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico. From these two spawning areas they migrate throughout the whole North Atlantic, mingling in many fishing areas. But fish from these two populations do not interbreed; they are separate breeding stocks that, when not breeding, mix in many areas where they’re fished.
Either population could thrive or go extinct. Right now, both are in trouble. European and Mediterranean fishing is out of control. But the fish native to
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So, what did fishery managers just do? As they have for 20 years, they ignored their own scientists. For the east Atlantic and Mediterranean, the scientists had recommended drastic and immediate catch reduction from nearly 30,000 tons annually to 15,000 tons. Yet despite official warnings and calls for a catch ban, the sleepwalking ICCAT commissioners on Nov. 25 set the catch limit nearly half again as high: 22,000 tons. Having by incompetence, greed, and reckless industry interference caused the depletion of this magnificent and commercially important fish, the commissioners agreed to ensure further decline.
Excessive catch limits will ultimately prove self-defeating, yet short-term thinking prevails. For the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, ICCAT’s managers have allowed fishermen to catch half again what their own scientists recommended. And fishermen have ended up taking double what they’re allowed (the actual catch in 2008 was 61,000 metric tons), making every second bite at the sushi bar illegal.
What else is going on here? "The EU has bankrolled the decimation of bluefin stocks by subsidizing the new large fishing vessels that are responsible for overfishing, to the detriment of certain traditional fishing fleets,” said European Parliament member Raül Romeva, who attended the tuna commission meeting. “When the stocks are gone, the same ship owners who lobbied to overexploit bluefin tuna will come cap in hand for more EU money.”
The U.S. has justifiable indignation over catches on the other side of the ocean. Bluefin tuna originating in the Mediterranean migrate to American fishing grounds, and rampant overfishing on that side of the Atlantic hurts fishing in U.S. waters. So the U.S. has an immediate interest in trying to inject some sanity to the fishing there.
But the U.S. should also have an interest in fixing its own problems at home, too. And it doesn't. The west Atlantic is fished by the U.S., Canada,
As commercial fishing continues, bluefin populations continue to plummet on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gulf-spawned fish migrate up the east coast and into Canadian waters, spend about 12 years growing up, and then — if they’re still alive — return to the Gulf as giants to spawn. The NOAA press release highlights Europe’s failings (the dodge-tactic pioneered by U.S. fishermen), and most environmental groups join the chorus. But the fact is: While our last few native giants trickle in to the Gulf of Mexico to breed, our own fisheries agency allows U.S. boats to catch spawning fish. They’re allowed to keep one bluefin per trip while ostensibly fishing for other kinds of fish. But high prices mean the big tuna get targeted. And because they fish with hundreds of hooks and can keep only one bluefin, they kill — and dump — numerous spawners. If one were designing an extermination campaign, it would work just like this.
The World Conservation Union lists west Atlantic bluefin tuna as “critically endangered.” More dithering could doom the population—and for what? This kind of negligent management drives U.S. boats out of business anyway because ultimately the fish population is lost, and everyone loses. The United States could immediately fix this problem. It has full control of the west Atlantic population’s Gulf of Mexico spawning ground. Yet the killing continues, while U.S. fishery managers stonewall all criticism on the matter.
The United States can — and must now — suspend tuna fishing on the bluefin tuna’s U.S. spawning grounds during breeding season. Then we need an Atlantic-wide bluefin tuna fishing moratorium. After years of inaction and continuous decline, letting them spawn free of constant harassment and giving the populations a five-year cease-fire seems the only hope for saving the giant fish.
Conservationists must work to get the west Atlantic bluefin population listed under the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, the U.S. should seek legal action against European fishing countries under the Pelly Amendment for undermining the efficacy of officially agreed-to fishing limits. And management of international trade in bluefin tuna should be turned over to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [CITES], which enacted the ban on ivory that saved Africa’s elephants. After all, it’s the export to Japan that drives this whole bloody mess.
POSTED ON 08 Dec 2008 IN Biodiversity Climate Energy Oceans Policy & Politics Policy & Politics Europe North America North America
ABOUT THE AUTHORCarl Safina, a marine biologist, is president of the Blue Ocean Institute, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, and a MacArthur Fellow. He is the author of the award-winning books Song of the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross. His last article for Yale e360 focused on the effects of carbon dioxide on oceans.
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Great summation Carl. One would think that policy makers would get this logic but they don't. As one person who wants to make a difference I started a social network @ http://www.savethebluefin.com. Here concerned individuals can have a voice. The one part that is missing from this fight is the voice of the public. A groundswell needs to happen here to move stakeholders further. Thanks for posting about this situation as every voice counts.
What a disgrace the ICCAT is. For years, they've favored the interests of the fishing industry over the fish. This time, it looks like they may really be delivering a death sentence for the bluefin.
With half a century of living, traveling and working throughout the Americas in aquaculture and fisheries, I would say that your call for a ban on longline fishing in the Bluefin spawning grounds during its season is sensible and sufficient in itself to save the species, provided that the water quality is amenable to egg and fry survival, which is most often the problem when harvests are falling in such species.
Your five year moratorium is way over-reaching!
This type of irrational demand is what makes others think that none of your advice should be taken seriously.
Stop asking for the moon, and you will get what you really need to save this species.
Sadly, a five year moratorium may not be enough to save the Blue Fin. We consumers must look long and hard at what species we are threatening-- just by eating them up! I for one have given up sushi and all other tuna products as well.
The only people pushing for a five year
moratorium do so for political alarmist
manipulation reasons, and not rebuilding the stock.
It's disgusting to see such immediate, knee-jerk
anti-statements posted after a thoughtful response
based on fifty years of experience. But this is the
Progressive Way - word games and fear, not facts.
How sad that such important issues are used for
mere leftist power politics - no wonder they fold
against the power of corporate interests, they
waste the power of their inherent truth on mindless
spin.
Seeing how much a a large tuna goes for here in Japan, it's not surprising that Japanese fisherman would not want to lower the limit. But similar to the whole gas thing, we need to start looking at what is best for everyone and everything rather than our own immediate benefit.
There are some errors with this article that I would like to point to.
1) The Atlantic bluefin tuna West and East are not listed as critically endangered under IUCN redlist. At the moment is listed a Data defficient.
2) The ivory ban has done little to stop illegal trade and elephants are in danger of going extinct by 2020.
I totally agree. I think the issue should be brought to greater light. Social awareness should be created. Programs must be organized you should also submit press release to get noticed by media and public alike
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