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U.S. to World: Give Bluefin a Break
In the meantime, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) this month recommended that the Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery be suspended until mandatory compliance measures are instituted by ICCAT nations. And NEFMC recommended, for Western Atlantic tuna, that ICCAT should follow the science in setting member quotas in 2009, and should remove the carryover of underharvest of bluefin and require an immediate, next season, payback of overages. The TAC for Western Atlantic bluefin is 2,100 metric tons. The U.S. share of that TAC is 57 percent. The actual catch in 2007 was 1,600 MT. The stock is considered overfished, and overfishing is occurring. The catch has rapidly gone down over the last three or four years, said NEFMC member David Preble, who is serving as an advisor to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act which, along with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act, gives the U.S. authority to implement ICCAT's recommendations. The discussion at the international level centers on cutting the TAC to 1,500 MT or as near to zero as possible, Preble said. A TAC of 1,500 MT for western Atlantic bluefin is expected to get long-term recovery within the next decade, Preble said. The U.S. catch, over the last few years, is less than half its quota. The continuing failure on the part of the U.S. to catch its quota could be a result of reduced opportunity due to the movement of the fish, or due to the decline of the stock, or both, said Preble. “The bottom line is, we really don’t know,” he said. The concern is that ICCAT could cut the U.S. out of part or all of its share of the TAC if the U.S. continues to underperform, said Preble. The share is based on fishing history. Eastern Atlantic bluefin is also doing poorly, especially in the Mediterranean. “The numbers are really grim,” said Preble. The U.S. does not fish on eastern Atlantic bluefin, but there is thought to be some stock mixing between the eastern and western stocks. Western Atlantic bluefin and swordfish are the two species under ICCAT’s mandate that are of importance to New England. Regional fishery councils in the U.S were asked to give their recommendations on the management of stocks under the ICCAT mandate, in time for ICCAT’s November meeting. “This allows New England to have a direct voice in the management of these species,” said Preble. There is considerable international concern, NEFMC’s Preble said, about the management of bluefin, which is considered an iconic species among the world’s highly migratory species. ICCAT management of bluefin, he said, is “widely regarded as an international disgrace.” ICCAT began a 20-year rebuilding schedule for bluefin in 1998, through total allowable catches. ICCAT is the inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas. A total of 46 nations, territories and intergovernmental bodies, including Japan, the European Union and the United States, are members of ICCAT. Species under ICCAT’s mandate include yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, albacore, bluefin tuna, billfishes, swordfish, southern bluefin, sharks, and small tunas. ICCAT’s latest stock assessment confirmed that both the Western and Eastern Atlantic bluefin stocks are overfished and overfishing is occurring. Bluefin is a $32 million per year industry for New England. Atlantic bluefin tuna are highly migratory and are fished by many nations. The fishery is managed domestically by the NMFS Highly Migratory Species Management Division and internationally by ICCAT. Atlantic bluefin tuna population levels are low, and international overfishing is occurring, according to the latest report from ICCAT’s Standing Committee on Research and Statistics, which met in Madrid, Spain, last month. SCRS noted the uncertainty and apprehension concerning some of the tuna stocks and the assessments of stocks. SCRS expressed concern that ICCAT stocks are being subjected to higher exploitation rates, and that this increase has not been accompanied by the types of enhanced research and data collection activities that are necessary in order to ensure resource conservation. The increase in exploitation rates on most ICCAT stocks has produced severe declines of some stocks that may hamper their conservation, SCRS said. Stocks of concern include northern albacore, bluefin, marlins and Mediterranean swordfish. SCRS said the quality of fishery statistics for some stocks is particularly poor, depending almost exclusively on fisheries-dependent information. In the case of the East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin, SCRS said, catches are strongly underreported. As a highly migratory species, bluefin require high levels of international cooperation for management and conservation, according to information from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which recently called for a “http://www. noaanews.noaa.gov/stories 2007/20071115_tuna.html” multi-year moratorium on bluefin tuna fishing in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. There are two stocks of bluefin – Western Atlantic and Eastern Atlantic/Mediterranean. They are caught with purse seines, handgear (rod and reel, handline, and harpoon), and traps. ICCAT has set and allocated Western bluefin tuna quotas by country since 1982 and Eastern bluefin quotas since 1994. In 1998, an international rebuilding program was adopted for countries fishing on the Western Atlantic stock, including the United States, Canada, and Japan. Stock assessments are conducted every two years. |
