The Tuna Commission Failed Its Only Task

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) made maybe the most serious mistake it could, given its attribution, in setting a fishing quota of 22,000 tons for next year's bluefin tuna harvesting season, and also completely ignored warnings from its own scientific advisors, the World Wildlife Fund announced from Marrakech, Morocco, on November 25th.

 

"Over the past decade ICCAT has stood by while catches have reached up to four times the scientific recommendations. This is unacceptable and WWF has little choice but to look elsewhere to save the fishery from itself," said World Wildlife Fund (WWF) senior fisheries officer, Mark Stevens, at this week's ICCAT meeting.

 

He went on to say that "ICCAT's string of failures leaves us little option but to seek effective remedies through trade measures. WWF will actively push for a listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [CITES] in the hope that stringent trade controls tied explicitly to the survival of the species will turn around the half-hearted attempt at fisheries management shown here by ICCAT."

 

The European Commission was the main architect behind the new quota, as it pressed nations that did not approve, threatening them with commercial sanctions. The US also opposed, at first, but it too gave in, after most states agreed to the scientifically unsound harvesting quota. Mitsubishi, the world's largest tuna trader, announced that it would "reassess" its "involvement in this business" if ICCAT continues its disastrous management of the bluefin tuna.

 

The new decision also allows extensive fishing fleets to catch the bluefin at the height of its mating season, when they are more vulnerable. At the same time, if the fish are caught when mating, their offspring will not be able to recover. Scientific data advised a quota of 8 to 15,000 tons per year, but apparently, in their hunger for more money, European authorities and ICCAT officials don't care that by 2010 there might not be any bluefin tuna left to harvest.