Live from the European Tuna Conference

SeafoodSource attended the second annual European Tuna Conference at the Sheraton Brussels Hotel on Monday. The room was packed with more than 250 tuna fishermen, importers and exporters, scientists, government officials and environmentalists from across the globe.
 
The conference was broken into five sessions, beginning with a session on the status of tuna stocks.
 
9:10 a.m. - James Joseph, science committee chairman of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, led the session with a talk centering on the longevity of the 4.5 million-metric-tons annual global tuna catch - about 3 million metric tons of which originates from the Pacific, 1 million metric tons from the Indian and 500,000 metric tons from the Atlantic.
 
Joseph pointed to two tuna fisheries in danger of collapsing - the Mediterranean bluefin fishery and the Indian yellowfin fishery.
 
He said the 8,000-metric-ton Mediterranean bluefin fishery is in need of a stock assessment by ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). If you're a buyer, you should be concerned about albacore in the Med. Though bluefin is "pretty heavily exploited" worldwide, the Mediterranean harvest is in the greatest danger of collapsing.
 
Joseph also emphasized the need to better regulate the Indian yellowfin fishery and to maintain the catch at pre-2000 levels of less than 330,000 metric tons. The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission meeting in Bali, Indonesia, earlier this month was deemed a failure by many government officials and environmentalists because the group did not set quotas for the fisheries it manages and did not adopt effective measures to prevent overfishing.
 
"It's very difficult to get a consensus regionally," said Joseph. "Consequently, heavy fishing continues. There has to be a political will."

9:40 - Susan Jackson, president of ISSF, picked up where Joseph left off. She explained ISSF's mission to undertake science-based initiatives with all stakeholders to facilitate the long-term conservation and sustainable use of target fish stocks and to maintain the health of the marine ecosystem.
 
The European Tuna Conference and the European Seafood Exposition, which opens on Tuesday, mark the European launch of ISSF. The U.S.-based nonprofit was formed by industry, scientists and environmentalists in March to respond to growing threats to global tuna stocks.
 
IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing, overfishing, ecosystem health and data completeness are four biggest challenges facing the global tuna industry, said Jackson.
 
9:50 - Sari Tolvanen, ocean campaigner for Greenpeace International, ended the session on the status of tuna stocks. Greenpeace's advice: Remove the worst, support the best and improve the rest.
 
"All bigeye and yellowfin stocks are overfished or overfishing is occurring; some albacore stocks are overfished," said Tolvanen.
 
Tolvanen also announced the launch of an online petition allowing retailers and restaurateurs to pre-order tuna from sustainable sources at www.seafood.greenpeace.org/preordertuna.
 
The second session covered marketing and the impact of certified sustainable tuna products.
 
10:55 - Natalie Webster, director of operations for the American Albacore Fishing Association (AAFA), led the session with a talk about the poll- and troll-caught albacore fishery her association represents. The AAFA fishery was the world's first tuna fishery to be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2007.
 
"We're encouraged by the stability the MSC program has brought to our association and our families," said Webster.
 
A common response is, ‘I can't believe they're catching them one at a time." 2009 Albacore Quality Forum - one fishermen said this was the first time he had talked to other fishermen about how to improve product quality.
 
11:10 - Bill Carvalho, president of Carvalho Fisheries and Wild Planet Foods in Eureka, Calif., discussed the pros and cons on MSC certification.
 
One of the cons, he said, is the cost of obtaining and maintaining chain of custody certification. Wild Planet can't use the MSC eco-label on the poll- and troll-caught albacore tuna it sells to domestic and international markets because it's too expensive. He said the cost of obtaining the MSC label through the AAFA would have added USD 0.50 to the retail price of a 6-ounce can of tuna.
 
"My concern here is will [the cost] will be a deterrent to sustainability," said Carvalho. "If consumers have such a price premium and brands have a high entry level, then eco-label schemes risk being a failed model.
 
"An eco-label needs to be accessible [and] affordable," he emphasized.
 
11:25 - Helga Josupeit, fishery industry officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization, ended the session with an overview of global tuna production and statistics. She said fresh and frozen tuna prices have stabilized recently at low levels and are expected to hold firm in the coming months.

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