The Pew Charitable Trusts’ global tuna conservation group on Monday released a blueprint rebuilding plan for Pacific bluefin tuna in advance of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission’s (IATTC) meeting next week in Lima, Peru.
Time is running out for the species, according to Pew scientists who claim the population hovers at just 4 percent of its original size and that high catches of juveniles threaten its existence. The science-based blueprint calls for strict limits on catches of juvenile tunas in the western and central Pacific Ocean (no more than 4,570 metric tons, or MT, which would be a 50 percent reduction from the 2002-2004 average).
Pew also calls for a harvest limit of no more than 2,750 MT in the eastern Pacific, including commercial and recreational catches, as well as a coordinated, ocean-wide rebuilding plan that returns the spawning population to 155,000 MT, or 25 percent of its original size, within a decade.
Pew is calling for a minimum size limit of 20 kilograms (44 pounds) to help protected Pacific bluefin tunas that are two years and younger. The organization also wants fish aggregating devices, or FADs, to be electronically tracked to effectively manage their use and for increased observer coverage on longline vessels.
Japan, Mexico, the United States, South Korea and Chinese Taipei have let overly aggressive harvests of juvenile bluefin tuna go on for years, said Pew, and have failed to enact a rebuilding plan.
