Less than five months into year, both Mexico and Japan have exceeded their annual quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna.
That’s according to Jamie Gibbon, a global tuna conservation officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts. It’s the second consecutive year both countries exceeded their catch limits before the calendar hit July. It also comes less than a year after the countries that catch Pacific bluefin reached an agreement on rebuilding the species.
Mexico went over its quota on 3 May, just one day after World Tuna Day – a day set aside to promote tuna awareness and sustainable fishery management practices.
“Pacific bluefin tuna can’t catch a break,” Gibbon said.
The species commands a high price on the market. According to a Pew report, consumers spent more than USD 2 billion (EUR 1.69 billion) on bluefin species annually.
Last September, an agreement was reached between members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission’s Northern Committee and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. In the pact, the parties agreed to take measures that would likely increase the Pacific bluefin’s biomass to 20 percent of its historic population by 2034.
Conservation groups and environmental advocates claim the current population stands at less than three percent of its historic peak.
“This marks yet another year of overages for a species that continues to suffer from rampant overfishing,” Gibbon said. “Despite agreeing to a rebuilding plan last year, countries are not following through on their commitments and responsibility to sustainably manage the fishery.”
Gibbon heralded the recovery plan as an encouraging sign, but it will be a hollow pact if member nations can’t control their fisheries.
“If nations are unable to enforce the rebuilding plan and show that they are honestly tackling overfishing, the idea of an ocean-wide commercial fishing moratorium may have to be revisited as the last-ditch option to save the species,” he said.
Photo courtesy of WWF Japan
