Op-ed: Pacific bluefin tuna recovery is more than just a success story

A photo of Martha Betancourt, a researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and an associate at FIDEMAR
Martha Betancourt is a researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and an associate at FIDEMAR | Photo courtesy of Martha Betancourt
6 Min

Martha Betancourt is an associate at FIDEMAR, a research organization focused on Mexico’s tuna fishery. FIDEMAR was co-founded by Mexico’s National Chamber of the Fishing Industry (CANAINPESCA), CONAPESCA-INAPESCA, and the Trust for Research and Development of the National Tuna Utilization and Dolphin Protection Program, to support Mexico’s longline and purse-seine tuna fleet as well as pelagic vessel operators.

The success story of the Pacific bluefin tuna is more than just an epic tale of recovery from the brink of collapse; it is evidence that collective action, led by science, can turn the tide on the state of our world's fisheries.

One of the greatest challenges faced by international fisheries targeting transoceanic species is achieving consensus and collaborative action over the long term. Deeply ingrained national interests and siloed data points can quickly become nearly insurmountable hurdles to effective resources management efforts, creating a stalemate that enforces the status quo, which is all too commonly characterized by unsustainable practices. Unfortunately, it takes a dire situation that dumps a cold bucket of harsh reality on our heads to cool down tempers and erase lines drawn in the sand to come together and see the greater picture that we face as inhabitants of planet Earth.

Pacific bluefin tuna are considered one stock throughout their range, and given the migratory nature of this species, they are managed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) in the Eastern Pacific and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in the Western and Central Pacific. Both organizations based their conservation and management measures on recommendations from the International Scientific Committee (ISC), which acts as an overarching supervisory body that looks at Pacific bluefin as a whole, rather than by regions, to draw a roadmap toward recovery and sustainable measures of this oceanic resource based on scientific advice.

For Pacific bluefin tuna, this moment came at the turn of the century, when countries bordering the Western Pacific, including Japan, began noticing declines in bluefin populations in their waters despite increasing regulatory efforts; at the same time, countries on the Eastern Pacific, most notably Mexico, were not registering any decline in abundance.  The Pacific bluefin fishery was on track to collapse because of the state of the stock at the time, with biomass bottoming out at a historic low of 2 percent of its potential unfished level between 2009 and 2012.

In response, members from the WCPFC agreed to reduce their catch of juveniles and adults in 2011. The next year, the IATTC implemented measures to reduce catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It was at this point, with a blaring clarity that nature operates on a global scale, that two major action points were established to lead Pacific bluefin toward recovery and to evaluate the recovery effort: establishing an adaptive harvest strategy and rebuilding targets established covering the next two decades.

There is, nonetheless, a third and most important action that is to provide the best available scientific information for the Pacific bluefin stock.

The adaptive harvest strategy's major focus was to establish guardrails in the form of restrictions based on biological indexes that determine the species’ reproductive capacity and the stock's growth models given different harvest scenarios: a biannual management quota per country, minimum catch sizes, and mandatory onboard observers to monitor fishing procedures and compliance with quotas and sizes restrictions. These restrictions provide fleet operators objective parameters on which to base their decisions on what schools to target using individual fish size and overall catch volume.

As a means to ensure compliance, the onboard WCPFC and IATTC observer program plays a crucial role in providing transparency to the process of marine resources management by delivering timely reports on the state of the fishery in each country so that collectively, quotas can be tallied in real time to ensure that recommended quotas are not surpassed. Countries like Mexico, which is the largest supplier of Pacific bluefin in the Eastern Pacific, furthers the level of scrutiny by also mandating observers from the National Fisheries Commission (INAPESCA) onboard the country's fleet.

Based on these growth models, guideposts were set along the road to recovery to gauge progress and the success of the adaptive harvest measures put in place. These rebuild targets were set for 2024 and 2034, respectively, with biannual assessments carried out so that any negative trends could be identified sooner than later.

To the surprise of everyone in the scientific community, the 2024 rebuild target – the median spawning stock biomass estimated for the period 1952 through 2014, with at least 60 percent probability – was reached five years earlier in 2019. Though still far from the ultimate goal of reaching and maintaining a recommended 20 percent spawning stock biomass, this was encouraging news and offered much-needed proof that a genuine commitment to collaborative action and strict adherence to guidelines established by the scientific community can not only stem the tide on a negative situation but actually change the course of a previously unmanaged fishery towards recovery.

At this point, in mid-2024, the spawning stock is 10 years ahead of schedule, having increased five-fold since the adaptive harvest strategy was put in place. This recent assessment has garnered two major updates to the global Pacific bluefin fishery: It is listed as “no longer overfished,” and the recommended biannual harvest quota has been adjusted within the new data points, thus sanctioning the allowable catch volumes to increase without reverting the new positive trend. This is a huge step toward ultimate recovery and a sustainable fishery.

Sowing a seed of hope in the future of the rest of our world's fisheries, the epic recovery story of the Pacific bluefin tuna is much more than a success story or undeniable proof that management efforts can be effective with the right commitments in place; it is a celebration of the human spirit as a part of nature and stewards of planet Earth.


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