Saving Seafood

Bluefin Tuna in Focus as Japan Seeks Boost to Catch Limits

October 21, 2020 — Countries involved in managing bluefin tuna fisheries are set to face-off over a Japanese proposal to raise its catch quotas for the fish, highly prized for sushi and sashimi.

At an online meeting that began Tuesday, Japan is seeking to raise its catch limits for both smaller and larger bluefin tuna by 20%.

A slight improvement in the spawning population for the fish has raised confidence that it can recover from decades of overfishing. But conservation experts worry that the capture of small fish used for farming bluefin tuna is may be putting the recovery of the species in peril.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission includes more than two dozen countries that collaborate to manage fisheries on the high seas and curb illegal and unauthorized fishing and other activities that endanger highly migratory species such as the Pacific bluefin.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

International Panel Omits Pacific Bluefin Tuna Quota Hike Again

October 13, 2020 — An international panel failed to adopt a Japan-proposed plan to increase catch quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna at an online conference on Thursday, in the same outcome as last year’s meeting, Japan’s Fisheries Agency said.

The Northern Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission reached the decision, as the United States argued that tuna stocks continue to be scarce in the Pacific and objected to the proposal. At the committee, approval from all members is required for a proposal to be passed.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Tuna value dropping, industry must plan ahead: report

October 7, 2020 — Tuna is holding steady as a $40 billion-a-year business, but commercial fisheries worldwide are hauling in bigger catches of dwindling value, threatening the long-term survival of some species, according to a new report.

“Fisheries caught 500,000 more metric tons in 2018 than in 2012, but were paid $500 million less in dock value,” study co-author Grantly Galland, an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries group, told AFP.

Unless governments that regulate the industry through regional management bodies adopt long-term strategies, everything from supermarket tuna to $100-a-portion sashimi could wind up in short supply, the report warned.

Crashing populations of skipjack, bigeye, yellowfin and bluefin would also jeopardise livelihoods and disrupt ecosystems in which the top-level predators play a critical role.

Read the full story at Yahoo! News

Bluefin tuna in focus as Japan seeks boost to catch limits

October 6, 2020 — Countries involved in managing bluefin tuna fisheries are set to face-off over a Japanese proposal to raise its catch quotas for the fish, highly prized for sushi and sashimi.

At an online meeting that began Tuesday, Japan is seeking to raise its catch limits for both smaller and larger bluefin tuna by 20%.

A slight improvement in the spawning population for the fish has raised confidence that it can recover from decades of overfishing. But conservation experts worry that the capture of small fish used for farming bluefin tuna is may be putting the recovery of the species in peril.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission includes more than two dozen countries that collaborate to manage fisheries on the high seas and curb illegal and unauthorized fishing and other activities that endanger highly migratory species such as the Pacific bluefin.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Population of prized tuna species decline as protections ease in the Gulf of Mexico

September 14, 2020 — The recent easing of tuna protections in the Gulf of Mexico and fishing restrictions elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean may be contributing to rapid and widespread declines for one of the most highly prized but critically threatened tuna populations.

A new report by an international tuna conservation commission indicates the stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna has plummeted to just 13% of its levels 70 years ago. The fish, one of the most valuable seafoods in the world, had shown signs of recovery in recent years, thanks partly to robust protections the U.S. enacted five years ago in the Gulf – the only major spawning area for western Atlantic bluefin. Those protections were eased this year by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“These are big concerns,” said Grantly Galland, a marine biologist with Pew Charitable Trusts. “We had early signals of recovery but raising the fishing quota and now getting rid of the protections in the Gulf of Mexico means the western population of bluefin is under threat again.”

Read the full story at NOLA.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Despite increased supply, South Shore fishermen are finding demand for Atlantic bluefin tuna is way down

July 20, 2020 — The population of Atlantic bluefin tuna is rebounding off the eastern seaboard, which should mean a banner year for fisherman but the normally high-priced fish is not in demand as its main markets are closed or doing little business during the pandemic.

“It’s all about supply and demand and there’s no demand for them, so the dealers don’t want to keep buying them if they’re not able to keep selling them,” fisherman Greg Ares, based out of Green Harbor in Marshfield, said. “Maybe within the next week or two, restaurants will be opened up in the U.S., sushi restaurants, and they will purchase our bluefin tuna. Even if I get $6 a pound, that’s good enough to keep going.”

There are two types of bluefin tuna fishermen — those who use a harpoon and those who use a rod and reel, the latter making up the vast majority of commercial licenses.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Worldwide slowdown in fishing unlikely to save rare species

June 30, 2020 — Commercial fishing taking place worldwide has dipped since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but scientists and conservation experts say it’s unclear if the slowdown will help endangered species of marine life recover.

Hours logged by fishermen at sea fell by nearly 10% around the world after the March 11 declaration of a pandemic, and in some hard-hit countries such as China, fishing completely stopped. The fishing decline has spurred questions about food security, ocean management and global trade.

As countries begin to resume fishing, new questions are emerging about whether an extended fishing slowdown could help rare ocean animals, such as the North Atlantic right whale. The whale numbers only about 400 and is vulnerable to fatal entanglement in fishing gear.

Less fishing could also help jeopardized fish stocks of the Mediterranean Sea, which is home to the overfished Atlantic bluefin tuna. And many rare species are vulnerable to accidental catch, called bycatch, in fishing gear.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Assessors must reconsider parts of potential bluefin MSC certification

June 29, 2020 — An independent adjudicator, analyzing formal objections to the potential Marine Stewardship Council certification of the Usufuku Honten East Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, has upheld one of the four objections presented.

The objections were presented by the World Wildlife Fund and The Pew Charitable Trusts in January, after the assessment body, Control Union Pesca Ltd., recommended that the fishery be certified in December 2019. Of the four objections, the independent adjudicator upheld objections to the evidence used to conclude how long bluefin tuna take to grow and reproduce, according to a release from MSC.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Measuring Atlantic Bluefin Tuna with a Drone

June 10, 2020 — This novel use of drones is a promising way to remotely monitor these hard-to-see fish

Researchers have used an unmanned aerial system (or drone) to gather data on schooling juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Maine.

This pilot study tested whether a drone could keep up with the tuna while also taking photographs that captured physical details of this fast-moving fish. The drone was equipped with a high-resolution digital still image camera. Results show that drones can capture images of both individual fish and schools. They may be a useful tool for remotely monitoring behavior and body conditions of the elusive fish.

Individual fish lengths and widths, and the distance between fish near the sea surface, were measured to less than a centimeter of precision. We used an APH-22, a battery-powered, six-rotor drone. The pilot study was conducted in the Atlantic bluefin tuna’s foraging grounds northeast of Cape Cod in the southern Gulf of Maine.

“Multi-rotor unmanned aerial systems won’t replace shipboard surveys or the reliance on manned aircraft to cover a large area,” said Mike Jech, an acoustics researcher at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and lead author of the study. “They have a limited flight range due to battery power and can only collect data in bursts. Despite some limitations, they will be invaluable for collecting remote high-resolution images that can provide data at the accuracy and precision needed by managers for growth and ecosystem models of Atlantic bluefin tuna.”

Read the full story at Environment Coastal & Offshore

MSC faces NGO criticism in Atlantic bluefin hearing, new report

June 2, 2020 — In a hearing taking place 1 and 2 June, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is questioning the merits of the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) certification of the first Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, citing a “questionable evaluation process that has repeatedly ignored the fragile status of the stock.”

According to WWF, MSC’s current certification of the bluefin tuna fishery has dismissed “the best available science and therefore produced a evaluation of the fishery that does not reflect the reality at sea.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source