The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission wrapped up its 93rd meeting in late August in San Diego, California, U.S.A., and before the meeting concluded, the organization announced a reduction in Mexico’s Pacific bluefin catch limit for next season.
It remains uncertain how much of a reduction Mexico will face after its fishery exceeded its 2018 quota by about 15 percent, or roughly 480 metric tons. Commission members also weighed the option of requiring Mexico to release some of the bluefin it caught earlier this year and was holding in aquaculture pens.
However, Jamie Gibbon, an associate manager who oversees Pacific bluefin for The Pew Charitable Trusts, told SeafoodSource the IATTC decided against that for a couple of reasons. The caught fish has been placed in pens where they are fed and continue to grow, so that means releasing 480 metric tons now would mean fewer fish are returned.
In addition, Gibbon said there are concerns whether tuna that’s been essentially hand-fed for four months can be successfully returned to the wild.
While the IATTC meeting ended late last Thursday, 30 August, more talks regarding the species are set to start this week in Fukuoka, Japan where the Northern Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission will meet.
Gibbon said the upcoming talks are especially important because Japan will likely push for a 15 percent increase to its quota, as it faces pressure from its fishing interests. The move comes just one year into an 18-year rebuilding plan and after four countries have exceeded their quotas in one of the past two seasons. Besides Mexico and Japan, South Korea and the United States also exceeded their catch limits last year.
“We’re really concerned that at the first sign of an increase in the population – and that was a very small sign of less than one percent increase – that Japan is immediately asking for a 15 percent increase in the catch limits,” Gibbon said.
The Northern Committee will come up with recommendations in early September and present those at the WCPFC meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii in December 2018.
In other IATTC news, the organization did not make much movement on changing management of the bigeye stock, due mainly to uncertainty surrounding the stock assessment. Instead, the organization opted to fund projects that it hopes will bolster confidence in the assessment data.
“The hope is over the next couple of years, (IATTC scientific staff will) be able to increase the certainty around that assessment and then be able to provide good management advice in the next couple of years,” Gibbon said.
In addition, the commission also established guidelines requiring countries to develop emergency action plans for their onboard observers. While Gibbon called it a good first step, he said the IATTC must follow up on that action and push for countries to establish a mandate and have equipment, such as emergency locator beacons and satellite communication devices, available for the observers.
