Saving Seafood

Report: ICCAT bluefin rules leave loopholes for IUU

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.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Clashing views ahead of tuna fleet crisis meeting

November 13, 2019 — Tuna industry leaders have different views on the best way to solve the current market crisis.

Some of the world’s biggest tuna fishing fleets are set to meet “face-to-face” on Nov. 13 in Manila, Philippines, as record low prices are seen as unsustainable for most tuna fleets.

The World Tuna Purse Seine Organization (WTPO) should close the whole fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean for one month or one month and a half, according to the head of a European fishing company.

“They should stop all the vessels for a month or a month and a half from now until Chinese New Year to stop overproduction and stabilize the market,” he told Undercurrent News, adding that even the canneries would support such a measure, as it would provide market stability. In this way, skipjack prices would return to a minimum of $1,000 per-metric-ton, he also noted, adding that the fleets in the Western Pacific should be “responsible and take steps to stop the vessels, restarting the logistics chain”. At present, there is too much fish and the logistic chain is paralyzed, he noted.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Tuna fleets to hold crisis meeting as skipjack prices drop to record low

November 8, 2019 — Some of the world’s biggest tuna fishing fleets are set to meet “face to face” next week to discuss the current market crisis.

An oversupply of skipjack tuna has led raw material prices for delivery in Bangkok, Thailand to dive from $1,600 per metric ton in March to $900/t this month, a record low. This has caused many purse seine boats around the world to operate at a loss. Prices are expected to drop even further in the near future -with rumours of some exchanges done at $850/t in recent days- a situation that is seen as unsustainable for most tuna fleets.

The World Tuna Purse Seine Organization (WTPO) will hold a meeting on Nov. 13 in Manila, the Philippines, to discuss the market and catch situations in relation to “concerns” raised by WCPO and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission members.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Western Pacific Council Urges NMFS Use New Model for Swordfish Fishery; Reference Point for Albacore

November 4, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council discussed changes related to the interaction of sea turtles in the swordfish fishery and the South Pacific albacore fishery when it met in American Samoa last week. Both require the National Marine Fisheries Service to agree with Council’s action to move forward.

The Council urged NMFS, on the Hawaii deep-set longline fishery consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) consider all anticipated scientific information in the biological opinion. This should include the new model developed by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center that evaluates the impacts of fishery interactions on the North Pacific loggerhead and Western Pacific leatherback sea turtle populations.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, prior to last week’s Council meeting, endorsed the new model as best scientific information available for evaluating the fisheries’ impacts. The results of the model for the shallow-set (swordfish) longline fishery showed no discernible impact of the fishery’s interactions on the population trend of loggerhead turtles over the next 100 years. For leatherbacks, it showed a small change in the long-term population trend, indicating that the population impact from the fishery would occur five years earlier at the end of the 100-year period.

The NMFS scientist noted the primary impacts to the leatherback population include directed fisheries and nesting predation where the turtles nest in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Council also urged NMFS to apply the model to the Hawai’i deep-set (tuna) and American Samoa longline fisheries so they may be considered in the ongoing consultations. It also recommended NMFS work with the Council to develop only necessary sea turtle protection measures under the ongoing consultations for the Hawai’i deep-set and American Samoa longline fisheries that are appropriate and practicable and ensure the sustainability of the fisheries.

Additionally, the Council will work with NMFS to evaluate the impact of any management actions for reducing turtle interactions on the economic performance and socioeconomic effects of the shallow-set and deep-set longline fisheries, including consideration of the effect on protected species being transferred to foreign fisheries should the U.S. longline fishery close.

Regarding South Pacific albacore tuna, the Council requested NMFS compile and evaluate the catches of albacore from Chinese-flagged longline vessels operating in the southwest Pacific and compare them to the catches and performance of the American Samoa longline fleet.

The Council also wanted to move forward on creating a reference point for South Pacific albacore. It requested NMFS and the U.S. delegation to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission work with other international delegations to develop the reference point. It should include the catch per unit effort of small island developing states and participating territories to reach historical levels, in addition to a biomass target reference point.

Furthermore, they should also work with other international delegations to develop:

a) a harvest plan for South Pacific albacore to achieve its target reference points “soonest” and under 20 years; and

b) an allocation scheme for countries and cooperating members in which small island developing states and participating territories are exempt from annual catch reductions to reach the target reference point or that they can maintain catches commensurate with historical optimal levels. The allocation scheme must take into consideration charter arrangements and allocations should be accounted by fishing vessel registry, such that conservation benefits are not undermined.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Survival of StarKist cannery at the forefront of 180th Council Meeting

October 28, 2019 — “The long-term survivability of the cannery is a key motivation for the positions that we take” during “difficult negotiation” for fishing days at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

This is according to NOAA fisheries deputy assistant for regulatory programs, Samuel Rauch III, who served in the last two years as one of the commissioners for the US government on the WCPFC, during a news briefing with local reporters on Tuesday, following the opening of the 180th Meeting of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council at the Gov. Tauese P.F. Sunia Ocean Center.

In his remarks at the opening of the meeting, Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga pointed to the critical issue — that NOAA reconsider its decision to close off fishing by the US purse seiner fleet in the US-EEZ and on the high seas — referred to as Effort Limit Area for Purse Seine (ELAPS) — for the rest of calendar year 2019, effective Oct. 9th.

Lemanu reminded the Council that the closure “will affect our fish cannery, and have a major negative economic impact on our tuna-dependent American Samoa.”

Read the full story at Samoa News

StarKist’s departure would leave a $200m hole in American Samoa’s economy

October 25, 2019 — If tuna canner StarKist & Co departs American Samoa for a location with cheaper labor costs as the company has previously warned, the impact on the US territory’s economy would be substantial.

The damages could reduce the gross domestic product of the 55,000-resident territory by some $200 million, according to a report from the territory’s Department of Commerce.

The report, presented at a recent meeting of the Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council, indicates that a closure of StarKist’s cannery, the island’s largest employer, would result in the loss of 4,000 direct and indirect jobs, one-fourth of its labor force.

The cannery is responsible for 80% of American Samoa’s exports and 24% of its imports. It “effectively” subsidizes the territory’s shipping costs by 40% and its fuel imports by around 30%, the report states.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

In Mexico, gains from fishery management reforms could surpass losses from climate change

October 25, 2019 — Abalone along the Pacific coast in northern Mexico have declined dramatically in the last decade because of lower oxygen levels prompted by climate change. But despite that, the Pacific Federation of Fishing Cooperatives (Fedecoop) has been able to prevent overfishing by limiting the total catch, according to Laura Rodriguez, the associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Latin and South American Oceans Program.

It’s the type of proactive governance that Mexico and Latin America need more of as climate change grows more severe, warping ocean conditions from temperature to acidity, salinity to oxygen levels, all while altering the life histories, distribution, and productivity of marine species, according to Rodriguez.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF: 15% of world’s tuna catches come from over-fished stocks

October 24, 2019 — About 15% of total commercial tuna catches worldwide come from overfished stocks, according to a new report by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) on the status of tuna stocks.

With stocks described as overfished and overfishing taking place, Atlantic Ocean bigeye and Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna stocks face a particular challenge, according to the report.

ISSF, formed in 2009 as a global, non-profit partnership among the tuna industry, scientists and World Wide Fund for Nature, assessed status of seven species of major commercial oceanic tuna. This included 23 stocks in total (6 albacore, 4 bigeye, 4 bluefin, 5 skipjack and 4 yellowfin stocks).

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

New device to be tested off Outer Banks could help save sharks from commercial fishing all over the world

October 17, 2019 — An Outer Banks fisherman next summer will test a device about the size of a spark plug that could save rare sharks.

The waterproof gadget with a transistor inside would be connected just above the hooks on a long line used for commercial harvesting of species such as tuna and swordfish. It would emit an electric pulse that drives sharks away from the baited hook.

“If this works it will be huge,” said Outer Banks fisherman Charlie Locke. “It could benefit fisheries all over the world.”

Sharks swarm the waters around the Outer Banks with many species spawning and giving birth here.

Hungry sharks gobble chunks from large tunas on commercial fishing lines. Charter boat anglers often reel in nothing but a fish head after a shark has bitten off the rest.

“We already know there is a healthy population here,” Locke said.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Does the dramatic increase in tuna catches mean extinction is around the corner? No.

October 11, 2019 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published by Sustainable Fisheries UW:

Over the last week there have been multiple news stories saying that we are harvesting tunas at unprecedented and unstainable rates—some stories have implied that tunas are on track for extinction. This is simply not true. Most of the time, catches are not a reliable indicator of abundance.

The news articles were based on a recent paper that showed that global catches have increased more than 1,000% over the past 60 years. That statistic sounds large and scary, but it is the poor understanding of how fisheries develop that is scariest.

Fisheries develop, just like other products and industries

The increase in tuna catches reflects the classic behavior of any developing fishery. Throughout history, catches increase until they level out or until they start declining because of two potential reasons: 1. abundance of populations goes down and therefore with the same fishing effort catches go down, or 2. fisheries management is put in place to reduce fishing effort and therefore catch goes down. In the case of industrial tuna fisheries, it is not surprising that tuna’s catches increased since 1950, because this is when these fisheries started.

Global catches of large commercial tuna species from 1950 to 2017. SKJ = skipjack tuna, BFT = bluefin tuna, BET = bigeye tuna, ALB= albacore tuna. PBF= pacific bluefin tuna, SBF = southern bluefin tuna. Updated from: Pons et al. 2017. Effects of biological, economic and management factors on tuna and billfish stock status.

Moreover, recent catches are not increasing very fast. In 2017, total tuna catches were only 18% higher than in 2000. Most of this increase was generated by an increase in skipjack tuna catches, the most productive of all the major tuna species. Further, skipjack are fished at sustainable levels in all Oceans (see figure below). Are we driving skipjack tuna to extinction or even overfishing them? Definitely not.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW