The last day of the Seafood Summit in Vancouver tackled one of the more challenging cases of sustainability worldwide: Bluefin tuna. The problem surrounding bluefin tuna clearly defines the summit’s theme, “Responsibility Without Borders,” as three species of bluefin struggle under mismanagement by fishermen and politicians from three continents, according to summit delegates.
Andre Boustany of Duke University outlined several problems plaguing bluefin tuna worldwide. Despite three distinct populations of bluefin tuna in the oceans, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) only looks at bluefin as one population, which points out the problems of management plans for the fish.
“The West says [bluefin stocks] have stabilized and argues with the East. With high recruitment, there’s less than 50 percent chance of rebuilding by 2019,” said Boustany. Despite outlining a somewhat gloomy outlook for Atlantic bluefin, Boustany said change is possible.
“It’s a question of political will and whether we want to give up some of the harvest now for harvest later,” he said.
However, Roberto Bregazzi of Advanced Tuna Ranching Technologies painted a picture of corruption in Europe that will continue to jeopardize western Atlantic bluefin’s sustainability. The 2009 total allowable catch was approximately 28 million metric tons, but Bregazzi tracked more than 35 million metric tons being caught.
“The numbers are still 15 to 20 percent off — there’s a true black market going on. Above 43 million metric tons are being harvested if you include the black market,” said Bregazzi. “ICCAT is incapable of implementing standards for this species.”
And while both Atlantic bluefin tuna species at least have some harvest data, the Pacific bluefin has none, at least none that has been shared with the international fisheries community. More than 90 percent of the Pacific bluefin tuna biomass has been exploited at age 0 to 1, said Toshio Katsukawa of Mia University in Japan. “If Japanese would wait six years to harvest juvenile tuna, they would not have to import other bluefin tuna,” said Katsukawa.
Although Japan announced a bluefin management plan in 2010 that includes minimum harvest sizes, Katsukawa noted that continued conservation measures are needed, but that they have to come from within the Japanese fishing community and not from environmentalists. He said to involve Japan in the sustainable seafood movement, eliminating bluefin tuna consumption is not a solution.
“Japan will just eat all the tunas,” said Katsukawa. “Criticism from outside has little influence on the Japanese. Do the Japanese stop whaling? A better way to address bluefin tuna sustainability is to make allies in the Japanese industry.”
