Saving Seafood

The trouble with tuna

July 29, 2022 — Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? That certainly seems to be the case with so many bluefin tuna being landed that buyers are telling fishermen to tie up their boats for a week until the market recovers. It’s become an annual event and each time it happens, people point fingers, make accusations and voice their complaints. Few offer logical solutions and it likely won’t change unless we make the effort to evaluate the situation, put things into perspective and address the affliction rather than the symptoms.

Too many fish

For the last several seasons, usually around mid-July, there’s a point where the bluefin market gets flooded because so many fish are caught and landed in a short period. But isn’t that a good thing? It means tuna are abundant. Yes, there are more boats in the water, but the reason more fish are being landed is due more to availability than effort. The downside is that prices plummet and the limited quota gets filled too quickly, meaning a hasty end to fishing season at its peak.

Preliminary steps were taken to address this in 2020, after results of the stock assessment seemed to conflict with what fishermen observed. The assessment said the stock was healthy but possibly in need of increased protection through quota reductions because of poor recruitment. The U.S. fishing community, special interest groups and fisheries managers joined forces to dispute that assessment.

First they gathered evidence to contradict the claims, while at the same time pointing out flaws in the procedures used to assess stocks. The models failed to take into account mixing between eastern and western stocks. Pretty much everyone admitted MRIP data are flawed. Additional spawning areas are not taken into account, and dramatically increasing release rates of sub-legal fish by commercial fishermen are not being recorded. Meanwhile, both commercial and recreational anglers were seeing increasingly more young, small fish while the models said they didn’t exist.

The effort was worthy enough to warrant a second assessment, and then an acknowledgment that revision was needed as stocks indeed appeared stronger than initially thought. In the short term, that resulted in a small quota increase for the western Atlantic bluefin fishery. So far, so good, but we can’t wait five years for another assessment.

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

How Do I Chum You Up?: Dewey Hemilright, Long Line Fisherman of Wanchese

June 19, 2019 — Sitting in the wheelhouse of the 42-foot FV Tarbaby in Wanchese, NC, we found Captain Dewey Hemilright, pelagic longliner, member of one the most highly restricted fisheries in the U.S. if not the world. As his girlfriend’s dog Annie angled for back-scratches, Captain Dewey pointed to a large console of equipment that makes up his mandatory Video Monitoring System, recording his every move when in Bluefin territory. He flipped through a notebook containing swordfish, Atlantic tuna, snapper grouper, large coastal sharks, and Spanish mackerel permits. He listed all of his U.S. Coast Guard safety requirements, and showed us his federal sea turtle de-hooking certification.

“Every 3 years I’ve got to be re-certified or I don’t get my permits renewed,” he explained. “For this sea turtle class, we have to de-hook a cardboard box!”

Above and beyond all the permit requirements, monitoring, and fishing regulations, it takes much more to stay afloat in the fishing industry. To Captain Dewey, it comes down to an emphasis on “we”, not “me,” and active participation in management.

“Your fishery is on the agenda, like it or not. So we better be involved.” Hemilright has been involved in fisheries management since 1997. “I’ve had a few people enable me to go to meetings early on, and I don’t know whether to thank them or kick them in the ass.” He currently serves as one of three voting delegates from North Carolina on the federal Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and is on six Council advisory committees. He’s also a liaison to the South Atlantic Council, as North Carolina is a “swing state” ecologically, and is subject to federal management of northern and southern species.

Read the full story at Raising the Story

ISSF to ICCAT: Rebuild Bigeye and Yellowfin Tuna Stocks; Improve FAD Data Reporting; and Strengthen Monitoring, Control and Surveillance

November 6, 2018 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has released its position statement in advance of the 21st Meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 12-19 November 2018.

“The 2018 assessment of bigeye tuna shows that the stock is overfished and subject to overfishing, and yellowfin may also be subject to overfishing. ICCAT must take urgent action,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson.

“This time last year, ICCAT scientists were reporting that the established catch limits for bigeye and yellowfin had been exceeded in 2016 by 11% and 16%, respectively. Fast-forward to today and the bigeye catch limit has been exceeded by 20 percent, and yellowfin catch limit by 17 to 37 percent. The management of these valuable tuna stocks is getting worse, not better. More should have been done last year, and the upcoming meeting in Dubrovnik offers another chance to get it right.”

ISSF is asking ICCAT to adopt stock-specific management measures in line with the advice of the ICCAT scientific committee, which includes: appropriate and fully-allocated catch levels so that ICCAT member countries can know their individual limits; capacity limits that are commensurate with these allocations; and provisions to ensure catches are in compliance with the limits. ICCAT must also consider alternative means to reduce the mortality of bigeye and yellowfin tuna in the purse seine fishery—measures like strengthened FAD management, limitations on the use of supply and support vessels, and expanded time/area closures and effort controls.

Read the full release here