Officials will gather for 10 days in Paris under the auspices of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, a regional fisheries management organization made up of 48 member governments. The commission has the task of apportioning the catch so as to give this prized sushi fish a chance to bounce back from overfishing.
Iccat’s own scientists warn that the bluefin is in danger of extinction, with the stock in serious decline on both sides of the Atlantic. They acknowledge that the commission has been ineffective in controlling overfishing: despite the ‘‘conservation’’ in its name, the commission usually has its efforts devolve into something resembling backroom deals to divide a shrinking pie.
For conservationists, fed up with the commission’s inability to arrest the bluefin’s catastrophic decline and stop widespread cheating by member nations, that means the organization should set the quota at zero. And they want spawning-ground sanctuaries in both the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Read the complete story from The New York Times.