February 15, 2019 — The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday sued the U.S. government for not releasing public records on why it denied protections for Pacific bluefin tuna, a sushi delicacy, under the Endangered Species Act.
In 2016, CBD petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the Pacific bluefin tuna as threatened or endangered under the ESA and to designate critical habitat concurrently with its listing.
February 15, 2019 — An investigation by French state television broadcaster France 2 into the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) to catch juvenile yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, aimed to highlight the dark side of the industry to consumers.
Use of FADs has been widespread since the 1980s, but their use now sits at the center of global discussions on the long-term sustainability of tuna stocks and the ecological impact of tuna fisheries. An addition to being associated with the catch of juvenile tuna, FADs are linked to bycatch of vulnerable non-target species such as barracudas, sharks, and turtles, the modification of tuna habitat, damage to coastal habitats from lost and broken-up structures that end up on beaches, and interference with other maritime activities, France 2 reported.
FADs can be natural or artificial floating objects or rafts, which are often made from local materials such as wood, bamboo, pieces of net, twisted rope and floats. They can either be anchored in place or left untethered to drift on the ocean surface. GPS tags are used to facilitate location, and fishers use them as a highly-effective method of improving catch rates and reducing operating costs, as tuna are attracted to the debris.
According to the FAO, in spite of intensive research, the reason why fish are attracted to FADs remains a mystery, but it is possible that they are attracted to floating objects that provide a refuge from predators.
In the two-hour long documentary, entitled “Peche industrielle: gros poissons en eaux troubles,” (Industrial fishing: big fish in troubled waters), which was broadcast on Tuesday, 6 February, presenter Sophie le Gall told viewers that the long-term future of the fishery was under threat because many of the fish being caught are immature and have therefore not had the chance to reproduce.
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.
January 22, 2019 — Jan Tharp, the interim president and CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, sees tuna fish retail sales growing at a strong rate again but taking a different shape in the not-so-distant future, she told a packed room at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Marketing Conference, in San Diego, California.
She was looking at charts of data from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a Chicago, Illinois-based company that monitors retail sales trends. They showed total sales for seafood up 18%, from $9.8 billion in 2011 to $11.6bn in 2018, and the sale of tuna pouches up 12.3% in the past year.
The sale of seafood shelf-stable seafood was up only 2.9% in 2018, however. And household purchases of canned light tuna have dropped from 48.1% of tuna segment sales in 2014 to 39.3% in 2018, according to IRI.
January 17, 2019 — Bumble Bee Foods and Taiwanese trader Fong Chun Formosa Fishery Company (FCF) are to partner with Ocean Outcomes on an initiative to improve fishing practices of the albacore longline tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean and Western and Central Pacific Ocean, from which Bumble Bee sources.
“As we procure a significant amount of albacore tuna annually to meet demand for our products, we are in a unique position to help ensure the long term sustainability of longline albacore fisheries,” said Mike Kraft, vice president for sustainability at Bumble Bee.
“All of that tuna comes from healthy stocks. This initiative will launch two fishery improvement projects (FIPs) to help ensure those stocks remain healthy, while working to close identified gaps between current fishery operations and other MSC [Marine Stewardship Council] principles.”
A positive transformation of tuna management and tuna fishing practices is gaining momentum, especially in the purse seine sector — but not all harvesting sectors are as far along, the firms said.
Recent catch sector engagement initiatives – such as the Global FIP Alliance for Sustainable Tuna (GFAST) – have made progress in addressing the challenges of international management of tuna fisheries, but there is clearly an opportunity to increase participation from Northeast Asian longline fleets, they added.
January 17, 2019 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) needs to address major concerns raised during an inquiry that looked into the effectiveness of the eco-label and the fishery certification scheme, recommends a new report published by the United Kingdom’s House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).
EAC opened its Sustainable Seas inquiry in April 2018 to consider the future of oceans. The inquiry focused on how marine life can be protected from climate change, overfishing, and pollution, and how the U.K. government can create a more sustainable blue economy. One of its oral evidence sessions focused specifically on the MSC, with the participation of MSC CEO Rupert Howes.
In the inquiry, the MSC was criticized for recertifying a tuna fishery where there had been evidence of illegal shark finning dating back as recently as 2015.
“To ensure continued consumer confidence in the MSC certification, we recommend the MSC addresses specific criticisms raised… into its five-year review and strengthens its standard accordingly. These criticisms include its unit of assessment, the need to factor in carbon from ships into its standard, concerns about shark finning (where we look forward to the publication of data verifying the reduction of this practice in 2019) and barriers to entry for small scale fisheries. The review should be transparent and ideally independently evaluated,” stated the report.
January 15, 2019 — The following was released by Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, FCF Fishery Company, Ltd., and Ocean Outcomes:
Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, FCF Fishery Company, Ltd., and Ocean Outcomes have announced a major initiative to improve fishing practices of the albacore longline tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean and Western and Central Pacific Ocean from which Bumble Bee sources.
“As we procure a significant amount of albacore tuna annually to meet demand for our products, we are in a unique position to help ensure the long term sustainability of longline albacore fisheries,” said Mike Kraft, Vice President, Sustainability at Bumble Bee. “All of that tuna comes from healthy stocks. This initiative will launch two Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) to help ensure those stocks remain healthy, while working to close identified gaps between current fishery operations and other MSC principles.”
A positive transformation of tuna management and tuna fishing practices is gaining momentum, especially in the purse seine sector, but not all harvesting sectors are as far along. Recent catch sector engagement initiatives – such as the Global FIP Alliance for Sustainable Tuna (GFAST) – have made progress in addressing the challenges of international management of tuna fisheries, but there is clearly an opportunity to increase participation from Northeast Asian longline fleets.
“This bold step by Bumble Bee, FCF and their supplying longline vessels blazes a trail for key tuna catchers to join the sustainable tuna movement,” said Daniel Suddaby, who is leading the project for Ocean Outcomes.
Bumble Bee sources its albacore tuna through FCF, a Taiwanese-founded company that works closely with fishing vessels. FCF, a partner in the initiative, will work with their associated longline fleets towards improved fishing practices.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for FCF to proactively engage the hundreds of tuna vessels we work closely with on a journey towards global best practices,” said Fong Lee, Sustainability Officer at FCF.
“We know sustainable tuna fisheries require robust harvest strategies. And we know transparent monitoring of fishery impacts is critical for addressing any negative effects on surrounding ecosystems. These FIPs will work towards both those goals,” said Suddaby.
As a next step in the initiative, project partners are formalizing both the Indian Ocean Albacore Tuna Longline FIP and the South Pacific Albacore and Yellowfin Tuna Longline FIP. As part of that process they are developing FIP workplans and recruiting FIP participants.
Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, headquartered in San Diego, is North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, offering a full line of canned and pouched tuna, salmon, sardine and specialty protein products marketed in the U.S. under leading brands including Bumble Bee®, Brunswick®, Snow’s®, Wild Selections® and Beach Cliff®, and in Canada under the Clover Leaf® brand. Bumble Bee’s mission is to provide healthy and nutritious products and meal solutions that are sourced sustainably. The company actively promotes the responsible stewardship of global fisheries resources and is a founder of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)—a global partnership of scientists, tuna processors and WWF, the global conservation organization.
FCF Fishery Company, Ltd. (FCF) is one of the world’s largest marine products integrated supply chain service provider companies specializing in tuna. An industry leader in sustainability and traceability, and FAD-free fishing policy, FCF works closely with governments and non-governing organizations to ensure the environmental sustainability of tuna stock and marine life products around the globe.
Ocean Outcomes (O2) is an international organization which works with local communities, fisheries, and the seafood industry to improve the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture operations.
December 19, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA:
Highly migratory species (HMS) like swordfish, many tunas, and thresher and mako sharks play a major role in both the commercial and recreational fisheries on the West Coast. They are vital to maintaining a balanced ocean ecosystem and generating millions of dollars from economic activities across a broad range of businesses—from marine supply and service providers, shipyards, and processors to hotels, restaurants, seafood retailers, and tackle shops.
But responsible, effective HMS management is as challenging as it is crucial. As the name suggests, these fish traverse thousands of miles of ocean each year. This poses a unique set of difficulties in assessing stock size and health, and strong cooperation is needed among scientists and managers across state, regional, and international boundaries.
Until recently, these challenges were made more daunting by outdated and inefficient data collection and reporting systems. For both recreational and commercial fisheries, data on HMS are derived from state landings information, logbooks, onboard and dockside sampling, observer reports, and other sources. The information was then sent to four different agencies working independently of one another. Creating comprehensive data for a stock assessment, management action, or treaty obligation was a time- and resource-consuming process.
Now thanks to funding from a competitive request for proposals—managed by the Fisheries Information System program in partnership with the National Observer Program and the National Catch Shares Program—West Coast HMS data management is coordinated through a single source, the eastern Pacific HMS professional specialty group. The results so far have been highly encouraging.
“The efficiencies and cost savings of the new system have only begun to be realized as duplicative reporting is eliminated and manual compilations of data in spreadsheets get replaced with automated, web-based reports,” said John Childers of the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center.
For fishermen, this translates to more timely data, which means better predictability in their fishing operations. “As we approach near real-time reporting of HMS catch, fishermen have the data they need to make decisions about when and where to fish before a quota has been reached and they have to shut down for the season,” Childers said.
Another significant benefit, enhanced through participation in Fisheries Information Systems working groups, has been better communication among disciplines and partners—such as data managers, program managers, programmers, and other staff from the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and West Coast Regional Office, the Pacific Fisheries Information Network, and the West Coast states. Improved collaboration and information-sharing is one of the key goals of the FIS program.
December 18, 2018 — Pacific Islands fisheries leaders expressed satisfaction with the actions taken by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to support sustainability of the fishery and minimum labor standards for fishing crews, according to an update from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA).
A compromise worked out late on Dec. 14 allowed for an extension of provisions in the “Tropical Tuna Measure” that is essential to sustainable management of the tuna fishery, said Forum Fisheries Agency director general, Manu Tupou-Roosen, and PNA CEO Ludwig Kumoru.
This includes the continuation of provisions for a three-month prohibition on use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) by purse seiners in exclusive economic zones and high seas areas between from July 1-Sept. 30, and an additional two-month prohibition on FAD use on the high seas.
December 11, 2018 — Pacific island nations have vowed to oppose US efforts to increase its catch limit in the world’s largest tuna fishery, saying the proposal does nothing to improve sustainable fishing.
The United States is expected to try to increase its quota for bigeye tuna at a meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) taking place in Honolulu this week.
The meeting brings together 26 nations to determine fishing policy in the Pacific, which accounts for almost 60 percent of the global tuna catch, worth about $6.0 billion annually.
It is mostly made up of small island nations but also includes so-called “distant-water nations” that come from as far afield as Europe, China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to fish Pacific tuna.
Island nations regularly accuse them of being reluctant to curb the lucrative industry in the interests of long-term conservation.
President Donald Trump’s administration will push this year to catch more bigeye—one of the most sought after species of tuna for sashimi—as a reward for complying with the commission’s monitoring rules.
All fishing fleets are supposed to carry independent fisheries observers on at least five percent of their boats as means of ensuring quotas are not exceeded and to collect accurate data.
However, most nations aside from the United States ignore the monitoring requirement.