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ICCAT Fails to Act to Stop Eastern Bluefin
Tuna Slaughter!
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I received the below information from Rich Ruais on
12/04/07: |
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"Tuna Friends:
Attached is a story I wrote for Fishermen's Voice on the
recent ICCAT meeting in Turkey which should be published
soon. I will also forward to you a summary of the meeting
prepared by Dr. John Graves, the U.S. ICCAT Advisory
Committee Chairman.
Please feel free to call or write with any questions.
Rich
(603)898-8862" |
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ICCAT Fails to Act to Stop Eastern Bluefin Tuna
Slaughter!
The International Commission for the Conservation of
Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) was blocked again by the European
Community (E.C) at its regular annual meeting in Antalya,
Turkey from November 10 through the 18th to reign in the out
of control fisheries for Atlantic bluefin tunas in the
Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.
Prior to the start of this years ICCAT meeting, Dr. Bill
Hogarth (Chairman of ICCAT and Head of the U.S. NMFS)
announced that the U.S. would demand a 3 to 5 year complete
moratorium of bluefin fishing in the eastern Atlantic and
Mediterranean Sea. The call for the ban was based on the
total non-compliance by European and North African fishing
countries and fish farms with the scientific advice
presented by ICCAT's Standing Committee on Research and
Statistics (SCRS) in 2006 that fishing catches had to be
reduced to prevent a stock collapse. In 2007 the SCRS advice
on the probability of collapse was even clearer given the
continuing illegal catches.
Specifically, the SCRS analysis showed that catches had to
be reduced from the 50,000 to 60,000 metric ton range to no
more than 15,000 mt. In addition, the advice also pointed
out a critical need to stop purse seining on spawning
bluefins during the month of June. By August of 2007, the
evidence was clear that the fishing on spawning fish had
taken place to fill the farms and that catches again were
closing in on the 50,000 mt range.
The world outcry against this continuing slaughter this past
summer did force the EC to close the Mediterranean fishery
for the balance of 2007 but the damage was already done.
Evidence from Japanese market sources indicated that with a
little more then half the registered farms reporting, 17,830
tons were in the cages before the closure and this does not
take into account the usual substantial domestic or
international shipments of wild fish to Japan that took
place all year.
After successfully blocking the U.S. call for a 5-year ban
and a call from Turkey to follow the scientific advice, the
EC's only response to the crisis atmosphere and demands for
action was to announce that they would reduce their
overharvest by 1,480 mt each year from 2009-2011. Many of
the countries were stunned at the irresponsible position of
the EC to allow business as usual during the 2008 upcoming
fishing year and continue moving towards stock collapse.
Japan's response to the crisis was to call for an
international meeting in March of 2008 of all Atlantic
bluefin stakeholders from fishermen, farmers and buyers to
explain their responsibility to conserve bluefin. The U.S.
(and Canadian) position was that the Japanese proposal was
an inadequate response to the problem and that the U.S.
would not be a part of the consensus adopting the
recommendation. The U.S. and Canada stopped short of
blocking the Japanese proposal given the lack of other
viable alternatives likely to be adopted.
Few veteran ICCAT observers expect anything to come of the
Japanese proposal to basically call for voluntary
industry/market action to save the eastern stock. The choice
now before the Mediterranean fishing industries is to stop
fishing immediately and absorb hundreds of millions of
dollars of immediate losses or use the next 3 seasons, risk
stock collapse but recoup as much of their investment as
possible in the meantime.
In a press release by NOAA after the meeting Dr. Hogarth
expressed his serious disappointment this way: “We offered a
proposal to suspend fishing to give the nations in the
eastern bluefin tuna fishery time to implement the
monitoring, control and surveillance measures necessary to
comply with the current regulation. The record clearly
demonstrates a lack of compliance,” said William T. Hogarth,
the head of the U.S. Delegation to ICCAT and the director of
NOAA Fisheries Service. “We hope the measures adopted at
this meeting means that all nations fishing eastern Atlantic
and Mediterranean bluefin tuna will follow through on their
commitments. However, we could not be part of a consensus
that this measure is enough when the looming crisis is so
great.”
The U.S. repeatedly noted the strong scientific evidence of
stock mixing and the damage overfishing in the East was
having on western fisheries especially here in the U.S. But
the evidence of strong Canadian fisheries the last three
years also supports U.S. fishermen views that inadequate
forage and other factors are also contributing to the
magnitude of the fourth disappointing catch season in a row.
The failure of ICCAT to respond in 2007 to the repeated
scientific advice about a pending likely collapse of the
stock makes a listing of Atlantic bluefin tuna at the next
meeting in 2010 of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species almost a certainty. A CITES Appendix 1
listing will ban all international trade in the species east
and west. It is unclear whether the U.S. would continue to
allow domestic sales or recreational fishing under a CITES
listing.
North Atlantic Swordfish
No action on North Atlantic swordfish was expected or taken
during the 2007 meeting. There will be another stock
assessment on swordfish in 2008 and potential changes to
quota shares are expected to be highly controversial. The
U.S. has not caught its swordfish quota since 1997 and
several countries are lining up to make a play for our
unused quota.
A recently announced NOAA proposal to do pelagic longline
research in one of the major U.S. EEZ closed areas may
provide for some increase in U.S. catches and help argue
that the U.S. is serious about swordfish industry
revitalization.
Mediterranean Swordfish:
A conservation plan was adopted for Mediterranean swordfish
know to be a different species of swordfish with limited
mixing and different growth rates than the Atlantic stock.
The maximum sustainable yield is believed to be about 14,000
mt which baffles many scientists noting the much smaller
Mediterranean Sea yet an equivalent biomass with the entire
North Atlantic. The main fishery problem is excessive
catches of small fish. The plan's singular measure is to put
in place a 30 day closure from October 15 to November 15.
International Circle Hook Workshop
The U.S. announced an International Workshop next Spring to
promote further research on the value of using circle hooks
to reduce bycatch mortality. The plan is to encourage other
countries to do "well conducted research projects with their
fishing industry using comparable gear and bait
modifications, with the goal of using those results to
implement measures (e.g. to modify or substitute circle
hooks for closed areas) domestically and through the ICCAT
process". The Workshop "will also review the latest design
in proven dehooking and safe handling and release equipment
and practices ensuring maximum survival of billfish, sea
turtles and other bycatch.
Bigeye and Yellowfin
Finally, the U.S. pressed hard to get an action on the Gulf
of Guinea fisheries for bigeye and yellowfin tuna. The U.S.
is especially concerned about the high percentage (i.e.70%)
of juveniles being taken in the fisheries which in turn
denies fishing opportunities for U.S. commercial and
recreational fisheries on smaller numbers of mature bigeye
adults. Given the relative good health of the resource
however, ICCAT decided to wait until 2008 to study new
management measures for the stocks.
Rich Ruais is the Executive Director of the Blue Water
Fishermen’s Association and the East Coast Tuna Association |
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© Offshore Pursuits LLC 2007 |
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