World Wildlife Fund (WWF): Immediate Ban Needed to Save Bluefin Tuna
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 7, 2007
1:15 PM
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CONTACT: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Lee Poston
lee.poston@wwfus.org
202-299-6442
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Immediate Ban Needed to Save Bluefin Tuna
WWF, Other Groups Call for Moratorium to Avoid Fisheries Collapse
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WASHINGTON, DC - November 7 - The bluefin tuna population is close to collapse because of over-fishing, lack of comprehensive management, illegal fishing in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas, and insufficient measures taken by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), according to WWF and eight other conservation organizations. The organizations voiced their concerns in a letter sent to Dr. William T. Hogarth, Director of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service and the chairman of ICCAT today.
The groups stress the critical need for a multiyear moratorium on the commercial fishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna until a management system and viable recovery plan are in place for both the western and eastern Atlantic. The letter is critical of ICCAT’s long history of approving quotas far above the recommendations of its scientific committee and its inability to enforce quota and other provisions of its recovery plan, driving Atlantic bluefin tuna ever closer to collapse.
“ICCAT needs to act before it is too late and the only sure way to avoid collapse is an immediate moratorium,” says Tom Grasso, director of WWF’s Fisheries Program.
Despite recommendations from ICCAT’s Standing Committee on Research and Statistics in 2006, ICCAT set the eastern bluefin fishing quota to twice the scientifically recommended level and failed to close the bluefin fishery during peak spawning season. Current catches were three times more than the sustainable level of 15,000 tons, increasing the risk of population collapse.
In the western Atlantic, US fishermen are landing just a fraction of the quota for the fourth straight season according to ICCAT. The average size of the catch continues to drop drop and catch of juvenile, school-sized fish has decreased. Despite quota reductions for Atlantic bluefin in the western Atlantic, the population continues to decline. Directed fishing has been banned in the Gulf of Mexico for over 25 years, but spawning bluefin are being killed as bycatch in other fisheries.
Official catches by the European Union (EU) fleets in the Mediterranean exceeded their quota by nearly 25 percent, with France reporting bluefin catches almost double the national quota. Due to fishing during the closed season and the use of illegal spotting planes, massive over-quota catches have been frequent occurrences in the fishery during 2007 says WWF.
Most of the bluefin tuna is intended for the Japanese market where it is used for sushi and sashimi. Japanese traders buy the tuna cheap and sell it at a high price. The Mitsubishi Corporation, for example, accounts for some 40 percent of Mediterranean bluefin imports to Japan. Company officials were alerted by WWF to the crisis but continue to trade.
“Now is the time to take decisive action to save this majestic species – efforts to date have failed,” adds Grasso. “ICCAT must not allow the fishery to reopen before the stock starts to recover and sustainable management is established.”
The letter to Dr Hogarth was jointly signed by WWF, Oceana, Pew Charitable Trusts, International Game Fish Association, Ocean Conservancy, National Environmental Trust, Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. ICCAT, the body mandated to sustainably manage the fishery, will meet this week in Antalya, Turkey.
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