June 18, 2020 — This year’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) annual meeting, as well as the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) plenary meeting, have been canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a letter from the organization’s commission chairman, Raul Delgado.
The SCRS meeting was to be held from September to October, and the annual meeting was to be held in November.
November 29, 2019 — At its annual meeting earlier this week, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas took steps to reduce fishing effort for bigeye tuna.
The regional fisheries management organization lowered the total allowable catch for bigeye tuna in 2020 and 2021 from 62,500 metric tons (MT) to 61,500 MT, and reduced the allowed maximum number of fish aggregating devices (FADs) from 500 to 350 in 2020 and to 300 2021. It also implemented a FAD fishing closure period for the entire Atlantic area for two months in 2020 and three months in 2021. In addition, ICCAT increased coverage by its observer program from 5 percent to 10 percent and moved to develop minimum standards for electronic monitoring.
November 27, 2019 — The world’s major fishing nations have agreed “modest” quota cuts for the under-pressure Atlantic Bigeye tuna but critics say more should be done to protect an important food resource.
Scientists warn that unless the catch is reduced, stocks of Thunnus obesus—especially prized for sashimi in Japan and canned worldwide—could collapse within years.
A scientific report prepared for last year’s failed meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) showed numbers had plummeted to less than 20 percent of historic levels.
This is only about half what is needed to support a “maximum sustainable yield”—the largest catch that can be taken without compromising the long-term stability of a species.
Going into the meeting in Majorca, Spain, ICCAT had a headline quota of 65,000 tonnes, allocated to the seven groups, including Japan and the EU, with the largest catch.
When smaller members were included, this rose to around 77,000 tonnes, pushing the Bigeye further into the danger zone, according to NGOs.
November 27, 2019 — The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas ended its annual meeting on Monday, 25 November, with members unable to approve a recovery plan conservationists believe is essential for the long-term survival of shortfin mako sharks.
At least two groups pinned the blame on the United States and the European Union. During the weeklong meeting in Mallorca, Spain, it was decided that the commission would continue to use guidelines passed two years ago that some fear will lead to further population declines.
November 15, 2019 — A new report, recently published on ResearchGate, has found that the current catch documentation method for Atlantic bluefin tuna used by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas leaves large loopholes that can be exploited by fishers catching more than what is allowed, allowing them to have illicit catch enter E.U. markets.
The report, funded by the WWF, is focused exclusively on the eastern bluefin tuna stock. It comes in the wake of the 2018 bluefin tuna trade scandal, which found an illicit trade network selling large amounts of illegally harvested bluefin tuna in Europe. A complex, multi-organization investigation that included the Spanish Guardia Civil and EUROPOL – dubbed Operation Tarantelo – discovered that the illicit trade of illegal bluefin tuna catch had been occurring for years. The trade involved most of the countries in the northern Mediterranean, with illegal bluefin tuna coming from Maltese farms and Italian fishing boats. One of the largest Spanish tuna farming operators, Ricardo Fuentes y Hijos, was found to be the mastermind behind the trade on the Spanish side, and used a number of companies to issue false ICCAT bluefin catch documentation. The volume of the resulting illicit trade was estimated to be around 2,500 metric tons a year, which would have represented 18.6 percent of the total quota for the E.U. in 2017.
February 8, 2019 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is looking for help in tagging tuna.
The Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program was established by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in 2015 to study key aspects of bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean.
As part of the AOTTP, Dr. Walt Golet from the University of Maine and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute will be working with colleagues at the New England Aquarium, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, University of Miami, and NOAA Fisheries to deploy 5,000 conventional tags on tuna in the western North Atlantic Ocean.
The effort will stretch from Canada to Venezuela and also includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
Those interested in participating in the AOTTP project and would like to volunteer to tag bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna, can contact Dr. Walt Golet at walter.golet@maine.edu.
NOAA says every fish tagged will give participants a chance to win one of 20 individual cash prizes, totaling more than $39,000, to be awarded at the end of the project.
November 20, 2018 — Conservationists left Croatia on Monday, 19 November, expressing disappointment that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas did not pass any measure to protect the stock of bigeye tuna.
Instead, commission members ended their meeting in Croatia’s capital of Dubrovnik maintaining the status quo; a catch limit of 65,000 metric tons for the 2019 season, despite an ICCAT scientific committee reporting that the Atlantic bigeye is severely overfished.
Grantly Galland, a global tuna conservation for The Pew Charitable Trusts, said it was a difficult eight days.
“Everyone is to blame for this one,” he told SeafoodSource. “Each individual member is more concerned about its own priorities than finding consensus on a real recovery plan.”
The current biomass is currently at 20 percent of its historical peak, Galland said. In order to generate the maximum sustainable yield, the biomass needs to be at least at 59 percent.
Because of the inaction, Galland fears the bigeye tuna issue will only get exponentially worse. Pew said the current catch rate means the stock is 60 times more likely to collapse instead of rebuild in the next 15 years.
Read the full story at Seafood Source
November 8, 2018 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:
Of the total tuna catch, 86% came from stocks at “healthy” levels, an 8% increased share of the total catch since last reported, according to an October 2018 International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) Status of the Stocks report. Skipjack tuna stocks — at healthy levels in all ocean regions — still comprise more than one-half of the total catch.
Though many of the broad indicators of overall global stock health remain unchanged, there were several notable changes for specific commercial tuna species:
The assessment for Western and Central Pacific bigeye was more optimistic, showing that the stock is not overfished and that recent management measures put in place by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) appear to be working effectively.
Atlantic Ocean bigeye received a pessimistic stock assessment from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and remains overfished. In 2017, Atlantic bigeye catches exceeded the total allowable catch (TAC) by approximately 20%. ISSF has long advocated that ICCAT adopt stock-specific management measures to effectively control the catch of bigeye and other overfished species in the region including Atlantic yellowfin.
Catches of Eastern Pacific bigeye in 2017 increased 10% from 2016 levels. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Council (IATTC) conducted an update assessment of the stock that appears to indicate that the stock is experiencing overfishing. The results should be viewed with caution due to the high levels of uncertainty in the assessment. Nevertheless, several fishery indicators suggest that the management measures in place are insufficient to effectively control fishing.
The stock status of South Pacific albacore is confirmed as very healthy, but the stock assessment covers only the WCPFC Convention Area South of the equator, not taking into consideration part of the catches from the IATTC Convention Area (EPO).
There were no other major changes in tuna stock status since the previous February 2018 Status of the Stocks report; the updated report reflects new data made available at 2018 tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) meetings held through October 2018.
Key Statistics in the Report
About the Report
There are 23 stocks of major commercial tuna species worldwide — 6 albacore, 4 bigeye, 4 bluefin, 5 skipjack, and 4 yellowfin stocks. The Status of the Stocks summarizes the results of the most recent scientific assessments of these stocks, as well as the current management measures adopted by the RFMOs. Updated several times per year, Status of the Stocks assigns color ratings (green, yellow or orange) using a consistent methodology based on three factors: Abundance, Exploitation/Management (fishing mortality) and Environmental Impact (bycatch).
ISSF produces two reports annually that seek to provide clarity about where we stand — and how much more needs to be done — to ensure the long-term sustainability of tuna stocks: the Status of the Stocks provides a comprehensive analysis of tuna stocks by species, and the Evaluation of the Sustainability of Global Tuna Stocks Relative to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Criteria provides scores for the stocks and RFMOs based on MSC assessment criteria. The MSC-certified fisheries list (Appendix 2) in Status of the Stocks complements the Evaluation report. Together, these tools help to define the continuous improvement achieved, as well as the areas and issues that require more attention.
In addition, ISSF maintains a data-visualization tool based on its Status of the Stocks report. The “Status of the Stocks Tool” is located on the ISSF website and accessible through the Status of the Stocks overview page; users can easily toggle through tuna stock health indicators and filter by location, species and other key stock health and catch factors.
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.
October 1, 2018 — PARIS — Dozens of nations with commercial fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean will grapple next week with a new finding that bigeye tuna, the backbone of a billion dollar business, is severely depleted and overfished.
Unless catch levels are sharply reduced, scientists warned, stocks of the fatty, fast-swimming predator could crash within a decade or two.
Less iconic than Atlantic bluefin but more valuable as an industry, bigeye (Thunnus obesus) — one of several so-called tropical tunas — is prized for sashimi in Japan and canned for supermarket sales worldwide. It is not farmed.
An internal report by 40-odd scientists working under the inter-governmental International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), finalized last week, shows that populations have fallen to less than 20 percent of their historic levels.
Even more critical, the stock is barely half the size needed to support a “maximum sustainable yield” — the largest catch that can be taken without compromising long-term stability of the species.
Current harvests, overwhelmingly legal, are also more than 60 percent above levels that would give bigeye at least a fighting chance of recovering its numbers, the report said.