Campaigners seek ban on industrial fishing of bluefin tuna

Yahoo News 16 Nov 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Four major non-governmental organisations called Tuesday for an outright ban on industrial fishing of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and "ranching" of this fast-dwindling species in the Mediterranean.

The joint appeal came on the eve of a meeting in Paris of the 48-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which sets the rules and quotas for tuna fishing in both seas.

"Bluefin tuna fishing does not have a future unless ICCAT shuts down purse-seine fishing and farming," Maria-Jose Cornax, an expert with advocacy group Oceana, told journalists.

In the Mediterranean, the vast majority of captured bluefin are trapped during spawning season by 30-to-40 metre (100- to 150-feet) ships, using floating drawstring nets that can enclose more than 2,000 fish at once.

The tuna, still in the water, are then hauled to coastal "farms" where they are fattened before being shipped mainly to Japan, which consumes 80 percent of the annual catch.

Eastern Atlantic bluefin stocks have dropped by 85 percent in 30 years, which "should be a warning sign to governments," said Remi Parmentier, a consultant for the Washington-based Pew Environment Group.

Along with Greenpeace and WWF International, Pew and Oceana called in a joint statement for ICCAT to close industrial purse-seine fishing and farming.

Spawning grounds in both the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico -- where the impact of the BP oil slick on bluefin reproduction remains unknown -- must also be protected, they said.

A top open-water predator, the bluefin tuna migrates across the Atlantic up to 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) to gather in these spawning grounds, where it becomes an easy target for industrial trawlers.

France and Spain have the largest fleets of purse-seine ships, while the biggest fattening farms are in waters off Malta, Croatia and Spain.

A bid to protect Atlantic bluefin through a UN international trade ban failed earlier this year, leaving the fate of the species in the hands of ICCAT, which meets until November 27.

The organisation's scientific committee has calculated that maintaining the current annual quota of 13,500 tonnes over the next three years will give the species a 60-percent chance of achieving a so-called "maximum sustainable yield" by 2022.

"That's like asking a passenger to get on an airplane knowing that there's a 40 percent chance it will crash," said Sergi Tudela of WWF.

Conservationists also point to high rates of illegal and unreported fishing, notably in 2007 when actual catches exceeded quotas by nearly 100 percent, according to ICCAT scientists.

Industry spokesmen say industrial fisheries have cracked down on fraud in the last three years by adding independent on-board inspectors and an improved ship-to-market monitoring system.