Good riddance to overfishing: New management can end unsustainable practices

 

Editor's note: This story is part of a series of online exclusives about natural phenomena and human endeavors we'd like to see come to an end. They are connected with the September 2010 special issue of Scientific American called "The End".

The meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES (pronounced "sight-eez") this past March was a decided defeat for the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Delegates voted 72 to 43 not to restrict fishing and international trade of the tuna so prized for its sushi that stocks are estimated to be at 15 percent of their historic levels. Although dismayed, conservationists remain upbeat, because they have at their disposal other management tools that could save the species.

Those strategies belong to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which actually has the job to manage tuna and tunalike species (a point argued by Japan and other opponents of a CITIES trade ban). Conservationists had forged ahead with a CITES effort anyway, because "we felt that a CITES ban would be a useful part of a package of tools to help reduce incentives for going over the quota," says Rebecca Lent, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of International Affairs and U.S. commissioner for ICCAT.

ICCAT, one of many regional fishery management organizations around the world, used a different tool to rebuild Atlantic swordfish populations (pdf) last September—namely, quotas. "The most important thing was setting the quotas at the appropriate level," Lent says, so that both the fish and the fishery economy can be sustained. To help enforce those limits, ICCAT tracked international trade to find countries that were catching (and selling) more fish than they reported. And domestically, the U.S. prohibited fisheries from waters where juvenile swordfish were getting killed as bycatch.
Still, getting countries to adhere to quotas is "the hardest challenge internationally," Lent says. Catch share programs, in which regional fishery councils divvy up quota shares to fishermen, could help ease this burden. Instead of creating a "struggle over a shrinking pie, you make [fishermen into] stakeholders, and that generates an incentive to be better stewards," says Frank Alcock, director of the Marine Policy Institute at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, the program helped cut halibut fishing levels by one quarter. …

Good Riddance to Overfishing: New Management Can End Unsustainable Practices

Technorati Tags: ocean overexploitation,overfishing,tuna,endangered species

Top French chefs take bluefin tuna off the menu

The move comes as some scientists predict that many of the fish we currently eat will be extinct by 2050.

Over the past few months, a cadre of top French chefs have pledged to keep bluefin tuna and other threatened fish species off the menu, whatever the cost.

With half of the fish eaten in Europe dished up in restaurants, it was high time for the food-loving nation's leading chefs to take a stand, said one of the country's greatest chefs, Olivier Roellinger.

Roellinger, celebrated for his fish and seaweed fare in western Brittany, took bluefin tuna -- aka red tuna -- off the menu five years ago.

Said Roellinger: "We have a responsibility towards all those who are in charge of feeding others, cooks but also mothers and even fathers, and must show them the way. They must be made aware that the sea, this natural larder, is in danger." …

"We chefs have played our part in this catastrophe," chef Gael Orieux said. "People tend to buy fish at the market that they've had at a restaurant. So my logic is to propose other fish that are less under threat, in order to influence consumers in their choices." …

Top French chefs take bluefin tuna off the menu

Technorati Tags: fish decline,overfishing,ocean overexploitation,Europe,tuna

Top French chefs take bluefin tuna off the menu

By Gersende Rambourg, November 27, 2009

PARIS (AFP) – Top French chefs this week pledged to keep bluefin tuna and other threatened fish species off the menu, whatever the cost.

With half of the fish eaten in Europe dished up in restaurants, it was high time for the food-loving nation's leading chefs to take a stand, said one of the country's greatest chefs, Olivier Roellinger.

Roellinger, celebrated for his fish and seaweed fare in western Brittany, took bluefin tuna -- aka red tuna -- off the menu five years ago. "We have a responsibility towards all those who are in charge of feeding others, cooks but also mothers and even fathers, and must show them the way," he told AFP.

"They must be made aware that the sea, this natural larder, is in danger," added Roellinger, who a year ago threw in the coveted three-star rating awarded him by the Michelin Guide, the French food bible, on grounds of fatigue.

Environmentalists say bluefin tuna faces the threat of extinction because of overfishing and want its trade banned by CITES, the UN body that rules on wildlife trade. …

Top French chefs take bluefin tuna off the menu

Technorati Tags: tuna,overfishing,ocean overexploitation,fish decline

Sushi lovers tense in Tokyo as bluefin tuna nears endangered listing

By Peter J Brown

A few European countries are taking steps to save the world's bluefin tuna population. This month, the European Commission (EC) announced its support for a formal listing of the species as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which would in effect ban any international trade in bluefin tuna.

Japan is the world's biggest importer of bluefin tuna, which can weigh as much as 300 kilograms or more. Considered a highly prized delicacy by the Japanese, the fish are often sold to customers in wafer-thin slices at sushi bars and restaurants. Whereas a fishing boat owner or captain might sell the fish to a buyer at the dock for $30 to $40 per kilo, that price could increase tenfold or more by the time it lands on someone's plate in Japan.

Prices tripled from 2007 to 2008. One bluefin tuna caught in Japanese waters sold at auction in Japan this year for over $100,000, well short of the all-time record which was set in 2001 at over $150,000.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan consumed 43,000 tons of bluefin tuna last year, and "a total ban on trade of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tunas would translate to a cut of about 20,000 tons". …

Sushi lovers tense in Tokyo

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Europe unites in attempt to protect bluefin tuna

Compromise deal with opponents of fishing ban welcomed 

 

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Europe is to throw its weight behind a campaign to save the bluefin tuna from decades of over-fishing after a breakthrough in talks in Brussels.

The European Commission announced a compromise deal backing an attempt to list the Mediterranean fish as an endangered species while waiting for further scientific evidence on the latest population numbers after the EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg backed down.

Europe is now expected to vote as a bloc of 27 nations in favour of a proposal to protect bluefin tuna under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) which – if approved by a majority of 175 nations around the world – would ban all international trade in the fish.

Environmentalists expressed their delight at the issue, saying it represented the best chance of allowing the tuna to recover from intense demand in Japan, which imports 90 per cent of Europe's bluefin for sushi. …

Europe unites in attempt to protect bluefin tuna

Technorati Tags: overfishing,tuna,ocean overexploitation,endangered

Political infighting threatens survival of the bluefin tuna

I saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show, in which he was at a high-end sushi bar, and the chef was naming each fish on the tray. I said out loud, “Please no bluefin tuna,   please no bluefin tuna…” Then he said, “This is the bluefin tuna,” and I shouted at the teevee, “NO! Goddamn you, Anthony Bourdain!”

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

The last chance to save one of the most majestic fish in the sea is on the verge of collapse because of political jockeying in Europe.

A proposal to ban the sale of bluefin tuna is being fiercely opposed by Malta, the capital of the lucrative global business, and by its representative in Brussels, the fisheries commissioner, Joe Borg.

Spain and Italy are also believed to be resisting an application to bar trade in bluefin under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which would cut off exports to the main market, Japan.

The European Commission will decide next week whether the EU will submit the application to a Cites committee meeting in March.

Conservationists fear that support from Britain, France and other northerly European nations for decisive action is wavering amid the objections.

The Commission is divided, with Brussels sources saying Mr Borg is fighting his environment counterpart, Stavros Dimas, who supports a ban.

Japan has also been lobbying all EU states, telling them that the management of the stock is improving.

Britain describes Japan's approach as "not unexpected", though conservationists accuse Japan of interfering in the EU's internal decision-making. Such has been the controversy that the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, is set to take charge of the issue at his cabinet meeting on Thursday. …

Political infighting threatens survival of the bluefin tuna

Technorati Tags: overfishing,ocean overexploitation,tuna,fish decline,extinction

URGENT- Your Comments Needed to Help Marlin & Bluefin Tuna by Aug. 31st

Bluefins and blue marlin need your help. Public comment period ends Monday.

The highest level of marlin bycatch in the U.S. is taken by U.S. pelagic longline vessels in the Gulf of Mexico targeting yellowfin tuna. According to NOAA observer data, the bycatch of documented discarded billfish in the Gulf in 2007 and 2008 included 1031 billfish caught, with 400 dead discards, 589 live releases, 36 lost, and 7 unknown condition.

And the only offshore Atlantic species in worse shape than marlin is the North Atlantic bluefin tuna. Yet this summer, the National Marine Fisheries Management Service (NMFS) issued a notice that they may allow longliners in the Gulf of Mexico to take even more bluefin where they are spawning, catch even more swordfish and encourage more longline effort into the marlin spawning season.

“Directed” fishing for bluefins or marlin while targeting swordfish and yellowfin tuna is illegal. But longliners are allowed to keep up to three bluefins as “bycatch,” and the fish are worth so much on the market they are incentivized to set out miles and miles of baited hooks in the bluefin’s only known spawning aggregation in the Western Atlantic, the gyres off the loop current in the Gulf of Mexico. ...

A broad coalition of fishing and conservation groups see this threat as an opportunity to judo-flip longline industry pressure on NMFS into a ban of pelagic longlining in the Gulf of Mexico, at least during bluefin spawning season (February through May), and marlin spawning season, which occurs in the late spring and summer months. ...

Public comment on the proposed bluefin and swordfish rule changes ends Monday, August 31. Bluefin, marlin and the many types of bycatch including sea turtles need your support. Please send NMFS a strong, two-fold message: 1, You demand an extension of the public comment period so that you have adequate time to make detailed comments; 2, You oppose increases in allowable bluefin bycatch; and 3, You want to see the spawning areas of bluefin tuna and marlin closed to longlining. ...

You can copy the attached letter (scroll down) and modify it as you see fit and email it to the NMFS, USFWS and also to your Congressmen and Senators. It is time they realize that the recreational billfishing community, which also fishes for tunas in the Gulf, is one that needs to be counted and its economic impact and voluntary conservation ethic appreciated. ...

EMAIL NMFS: Margo.Schulze-Haugen@noaa.gov
& Randy.Blankinship@noaa.gov
Margo Schulze-Haugen, Chief
NMFS Office of Highly Migratory Species

EMAIL USFWS: Scientificauthority@fws.gov
Rosemarie GnamChief, Division of Scientific Authority, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service

Last Chance for the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna?

Technorati Tags: overfishing,tuna,fish decline,ocean overexploitation

Fishing nations spare both Atlantic and Pacific tuna species

PARIS, France, July 16, 2009 (ENS) - Declining populations of tunas received conservation support from countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean this week as governments realize how much damage overfishing has done to the world's tuna stocks.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France today announced his country's support for a ban of international trade in endangered Northern Bluefin Tuna, joining a growing call to list the overexploited fish under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES.

Speaking at the close of a national stakeholder consultation on France's future sustainable fisheries and maritime policy, the "Grenelle de la Mer," President Sarkozy said, "France supports listing bluefin tuna on the CITES convention to ban international trade."

Sarkozy put this in the context of France's support for a broader sustainable fisheries policy. "Ours is the last generation with the ability to take action before it's too late — we must protect marine resources now, in order to fish better in future. We owe this to fishermen, and we owe it to future generations," he said.

The Principality of Monaco was first to communicate its willingness to sponsor a proposal to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, and has this week launched a formal CITES consultation process to seek the support of other range States.

Contributing to the species' steep decline are the huge overcapacity of fishing fleets, catches that far exceed legal quotas, pirate fishing, the use of illegal spotting planes to chase tuna, under-reporting of catch, fishing during the closed season, management measures that disregard scientific advice — all driven by the insatiable appetite of the world's luxury seafood markets where Northern Bluefin Tuna fetches record prices. …

Fishing Nations Spare Both Atlantic and Pacific Tuna Species

Technorati Tags: overfishing,tuna,extinction

Pret A Manger to stop selling tuna sandwiches

Pret A Manger the high street food outlet is to stop stocking tuna sandwiches amid environmental concerns about intensive fishing methods.

By Chris Irvine

Julian Metcalfe, the chain's co-founder, has removed tuna and cucumber sandwiches, while he has also banned endangered bluefin tuna from sushi boxes sold at Pret and its sister outlet Itsu.

His ban comes after watching environmental documentary The End of the Line, which describes how modern fishing is destroying the oceans' ecosystems.

Julian Metcalfe, the chain's co-founder, has removed tuna and cucumber sandwiches, while he has also banned endangered bluefin tuna from sushi boxes sold at Pret and its sister outlet Itsu.

His ban comes after watching environmental documentary The End of the Line, which describes how modern fishing is destroying the oceans' ecosystems. …

Pret A Manger to stop selling tuna sandwiches

Technorati Tags: fish decline,overfishing,tuna,extinction

Pacific nations to cut bigeye tuna catch by 30 percent

By Jon Herskovitz and Seo Eun-kyung; Editing by Bill Tarrant

SEOUL (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations have agreed to cut their catches of bigeye tuna by 30 percent by 2011 in order to help preserve the fish that is popular in the region served raw as sushi and sashimi.

The deal, announced late on Friday, calls on the 25 members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to implement cuts of 10 percent a year on bigeye tuna from 2009 to 2011. The group met this week in the South Korean city of Busan.

The group, which includes South Korea, Japan and the United States, also agreed to place limits on the fishing season and ban fishing of bigeye tuna in international waters, according to a summary of the meeting provided by South Korea's fisheries agency on Saturday.

Western and Central Pacific tuna stocks are the largest in the world and account for more than half the tuna consumed.

A decline in bluefin stocks has increased demand for bigeye tuna, which is fished in the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Western and Central Pacific.

Worldwide stocks of bigeye tuna, a prime source for Japanese restaurants serving sushi and sashimi around the world, are on the verge of collapse from overfishing, conservationists say.

In November, the European Union and nations such as Russia, Japan and South Korea that fish the Atlantic and Mediterranean, cut bluefin tuna quotas by 30 percent to 19,950 tonnes in 2010.

Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:14pm EST

Technorati Tags: overfishing,tuna

Tuna fishing to be cut by 30 pct over two years: EU

AFP - Bluefin tuna fishing will have to be cut by 30 percent over two years in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean under an international accord reached in Marrakesh, the European Commission said Tuesday.

Tuna fishing to be cut by 30 pct over two years: EU (AFP)
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:14:42 GMT

Technorati Tags: tuna,overfishing,European Union