WWF says overfishing means the end of the bluefin tuna in three years

The breeding population of Atlantic bluefin tuna will be destroyed in three years unless overfishing is considerably reduced, conservation group WWF said as the two-month Mediterranean fishing season was about to begin. “For years people have been asking when the collapse of this fishery will happen, and now we have the answer,” said Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. WWF is calling for the immediate closure of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery to give the species a chance to recover, while continuing to encourage consumers, retailers, restaurants and chefs to join the global movement to avoid the consumption of the imperiled fish.
Demand from Japanese sushi lovers has caused an impressive growth of Mediterranean fleets over the past decade, many of those using illegal fishing methods, the group said. “It is absurd and inexcusable to open a fishing season, for business as usual, when stocks of the target species are collapsing,” added Tudela. Environmental groups condemned an agreement signed in November, 2008 by EU Member States setting bluefin quotas 47 percent higher than recommended. The bluefin can only be saved, WWF says, by a complete halt to fishing in May and June, when the fish rush through the Straits of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean. According to WWF’s analysis, the average size of mature tunas had more than halved since the 1990s and this has had a disproportionately high impact since bigger fish produced many more offspring. Growing numbers of restaurants and retailers including Carrefour’s Italian supermarkets are boycotting these illegal fishing methods. It’s not just bluefin tuna that are threatened either, according to other fishing conservation groups. “Fishing limits must be set according to scientific advice and not be subject to political horsetrading because without fish there will be no fishing,” said Uta Bellion, director of the Pew Environment Group’s European Marine Program. The commission said 88 percent of stocks are overfished in EU waters, compared with only 25 percent worldwide. Almost one of three fish cannot reproduce normally because the population is too depleted. In the North Sea, 93 percent of the cod are now caught before they can spawn, contributing to the decline.
“In many fisheries we keep fishing two or three times more than what fish stocks can sustain,” the commission said. Cutting fleets would drastically affect key fishing nations like Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Britain. Spain has the biggest fleet when it comes to tonnage, but its 11,350 boats are still outmatched by Greece, which has 17,350, and Italy with 13,700. France, which traditionally is at the forefront of industrial action against EU fishing restrictions, has almost 8,000 boats.

Sushi killed the bluefin
Aircraft and patrol boats will be deployed to prevent over-trawling by European Union fleets when the fishing season for the endangered bluefin tuna opens. Prized by sushi lovers but chronically overfished for years, bluefin tuna commands sky-high prices in Asia, particularly in Japan where a single fish can fetch up to USD 100,000.
WWF said overfishing would wipe out the breeding population of Atlantic bluefin tuna within three years and it was “inexcusable” to allow fishing when stocks were collapsing. Europe’s two-month season opened for the six EU states fishing in Mediterranean and east Atlantic waters: Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain.Last year, the European Commission banned bluefin tuna trawling after countries quickly filled their allotted quotas. The EU executive also accused France and Italy, the two nations most involved, of quota-busting and under-reporting catches. This year, the Commission said it is determined to ensure the EU’s overall catch quota for 2009, agreed in international negotiations, is not exceeded. France and Italy have agreed to reduce fleet numbers, it says. “Stocks are considered to be in a critical situation,” one Commission official said, according to WWF. “The fishing season will be closed on June 15, it will have reduced quotas and increased inspections. We have to limit the scope for those operators who want to avoid the rules.”Besides increasing surveillance using aircraft, high seas and coastal patrol vessels as well as port inspection teams will check bluefin tuna landings, the official said. Industrial vessels that use a “purse seine” net, which floats the top of a long wall of netting on the surface while its bottom is weighted under the water, are the main problem.France and Italy have pledged to reduce numbers of bluefin purse seine trawlers by more than 20 percent and nearly 30 percent respectively this fishing season, the European Commission said. Some 85 percent of the fish are caught in June, and commission experts said the EU’s fishing capacity is so large and bluefin trawling activity so concentrated in one month that the EU quota can be exhausted in just two days of fishing. “Economic concerns suggest that there will be problems,” the official said. “But we will be able to avoid overfishing if everyone respects the rules. The forecasts for this year are much more optimistic than for 2007/08.”
Bluefin tuna are known for their huge size, power and speed, with maximum weights recorded in excess of 600 kilogrammes, which make them a prized catch for taste and the money they bring in to the highly competitive fishing industry.
Emphasising that the fish could be gone by 2012, and that the population of breeding tunas has been declining steeply for the past decade, WWF said fisheries managers and decision-makers keep ignoring the warnings from scientists that fishing must stop. “editerranean bluefin tuna is on the slippery slope to collapse, and here is the data to prove it,” said Tudela. “Whichever way you look at it, the Mediterranean bluefin tuna collapse trend is dramatic, it is alarming, and it is happening now. WWF has no choice but to again urge the immediate closure of this fishery.”
The population of tunas that are capable of reproducing – fish aged four years or over and weighing more than 35 kilogramme – is being wiped out. In 2007 the proportion of breeding tuna was only a quarter of the levels of 50 years ago, with most of the decline happening in recent years. Meanwhile, the size of mature tunas has more than halved since the 1990s. The average size of tuna caught off the coast of Libya, for example, has dropped from 124 kilogrammes in 2001 to only 65 kilogrammes last year. Data gathered by WWF show that this pattern has been observed across the entire Mediterranean.
Before the age of large-scale industrial fishing, individual tunas could even weigh in at 900 kilos. The loss of these giant tunas – able to produce many more offspring than medium-sized individuals – has a disproportionately high impact on the reproduction of the species, WWF said.
The huge overcapacity of fishing fleets, catches that far exceed legal quotas, pirate fishing, the use of illegal spotting planes to chase the tunas, underreporting of catch, fishing during the closed season, management measures disregarding scientific advice – and the insatiable appetite of the world’s luxury seafood markets – have all contributed to this dramatic decline, the group said.

Fighting over fish
In many places on the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic coast like France’s Boulogne or Spain’s Vigo, fishing has been a way of life for centuries and any cuts would be most severely felt there. The environmental group Greenpeace said, “We’ve reached the end of the line: we need to halve the size of Europe’s fishing fleet, cut the fishing effort and protect 40 percent of EU waters with marine reserves,” Policy Director Saskia Richartz said. On top of imposing quotas, the EU is already moving to cut down on illegal fishing and landing undeclared fish.
Despite government subsidies that continue to fuel the excessive fishing effort, the EU fishing industry remains one mired in losses or small profits at best. The European Commission proposals now faces months of scrutiny by industry, environmental groups and marine scientists before they will be discussed and decided on by the EU member states, a process that could take years.
The United Kingdom government has been slammed by a Euro MP for failing to support British fishermen in the wake of a promise by the French fisheries minister to provide financial aid and increased quotas for protesting French fishermen. Speaking in Strasbourg, Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson, who is fisheries spokesman for the Conservatives in the European parliament, said: “We have seen the French and other governments subsidise their fishing industry before. Although we fish in the same waters as the French, the UK government refuses to help our fishermen, be it on rising fuel prices last summer or annual fishing quotas. But every time the French fishermen blockade the Channel ports, the French government caves in to their demands, while we obey the law and as a result get nothing. It is frustrating and deeply unfair.
Stevenson said, “We’ve seen more than 60 percent of our whitefish fleet scrapped in the last six years because of the catastrophic impact of the Common Fisheries Policy. The horrendous mish-mash of total allowable catches, quotas, restrictions on the days that a fishermen can go to sea, technical restrictions on the gear he can use, limits on his engine size and a plethora of micro-managed rules and regulations dreamed up by Brussels bureaucrats, has driven our fishermen to the verge of bankruptcy. It is time the British government stood up for our industry in the same way the French government stands up for theirs. He added that, “Although the European Commission is currently examining the French government’s promise of GBP 3.5 million financial aid to fishermen and a renegotiation of France’s fishing quotas, which the French Minister Michael Barnier promised last week, it seems likely that it will be approved. The aid package would cover losses suffered by French fishermen who are facing a temporary halt to fishing, by boats nearing the limits of their quotas. The European Commission has confirmed that some aid may be justified from the European Fisheries Fund. In addition, although quotas agreed by the Council of Minister last December cannot be re-negotiated, Michael Barnier has promised to get extra quotas from other EU Member States who will swap unused quota with France. In other words he is prepared to go the extra mile to help his fisheries sector.“ I am really angry about this. I was in Shetland, Orkney and Stornoway last week talking to Scottish fishermen who are at the end of their tether because of the appalling quota regime agreed last December. But now they see their French counterparts rewarded for blockading the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk in the Channel last week. The French fishermen’s action cost millions to ferry operators, businesses and massive disruption to travelers but nevertheless has won them a promise of cash and extra quotas. Meanwhile the British government refuses to budge and does nothing to help our beleaguered fishermen. It is outrageous.”