Saving Seafood

‘Wicked Tuna’ star steps up for charter fleet

July 17, 2015 — Say what you want for the potential for over-exposure after four years chasing large fish on the small screen, but the “Wicked Tuna” brand still holds a certain cache.

Just ask Tom Orrell of Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet.

On Wednesday, for the second consecutive year, Orrell ran a special Yankee Fleet charter fishing trip featuring “Wicked Tuna” mainstay and Beverly native Dave Marciano. And for the second year in a row, it was a raging success.

“It really went wonderfully,” Orrell said Thursday. “Everybody caught a lot of fish and everybody came home ecstatic. We’ve already booked it for next year.”

Orrell said he had about 50 fishermen aboard the 100-foot long Yankee Freedom and they spent much of the day catching haddock and redfish. They even got up close and personal with a porbeagle shark.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Pew Wants Global Trade Ban on Pacific Bluefin After IATTC Fails to Agree on Conservation

SEAFOODNEWS.COM — July 6, 2015 — The Pew Charitable Trusts wants global fishery authorities to explore the possibility of banning the international trade for Pacific bluefin tuna after no additional conservation measures for the fishery were agreed to during the 89th meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) that took place between June 22 and July 3 in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

According to Pew the Pacific bluefin tuna population remains in a severely depleted state: It is overfished, and overfishing continues on a stock that is at 4 percent of its unfished levels. The Group has repeatedly called for IATTC to develop and mandate the use of a cost-effective tool to combat IUU fishing among member the countries. However, no progress was made on gaining consensus during the meeting.

“The failure the IATTC to agree to reduce catch limits or adopt a long-term rebuilding plan for Pacific bluefin tuna leaves the species at risk of population collapse,” said Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “It is high time to look at the prohibition of international trade through the Convention on International Trades in Endangered Species [CITES] as a means to protect this highly depleted species.”

There were a few regulatory measures agreed to during the meeting that Pew did support.

Mexico announced it will reduce its catch of Pacific bluefin by 250 metric tons next year, which would bring the overall harvest closer to scientifically recommended levels according to Pew. Other countries could also choose to act outside of the Commission process and implement additional conservation measures.

IATTC members reached consensus on a proposal to protect mobulid rays, which are vulnerable to overfishing. The measure prohibits the retention of rays caught incidentally – with exemptions for some artisanal vessels – and outlines a range of techniques that help fishers with live release.

“This is a good week for mobulid rays in the eastern Pacific,” Nickson said. “Overfishing is a major threat to the survival of these important populations and the measure that is now in place will increase the opportunity for rays to survive getting caught up in fishing gear.”

Meanwhile, IATTC members had been discussing proposals on a regional standard for port State measures since 2010 but have not reached an agreement. Port State measures are a highly efficient and cost-effective tool to ensure transparency in the sector and dis-incentivize illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

“Right now the government agency responsible at any given port has no international obligation to inspect a vessel known to have engaged in nefarious activities. This is a major loophole and it has been left wide open for too long. While individual nations can take action, only regional cooperation will bring about measurable change,” Nickson said.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

Fed fishery council calls for better terms for tuna catches

June 23, 2015 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is calling for improved terms in the South Pacific Tuna Treaty (SPTT) for the Pago-based purse seiner fleet. Winding up its 163rd meeting on Thursday in Honolulu, the Council made several recommendations to address increasingly restricted catch limits on US purse seine and longline vessels in the Western and Pacific Ocean (WCPO).

In a press statement made over the weekend, the Council recognized that the combination of the US high seas purse-seine effort limits by the international Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the removal of historic levels of fishing days in Kiribati waters available under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty (SPTT) may be resulting in reduced supply of tuna offloaded directly to the Pago Pago canneries by US purse-seine vessels.

The Council recommended that NMFS and the State Department improve the current terms of the SPTT with regards to Pago Pago-based US purse seiners. The Council also recommended that NMFS consider developing regulations that would allow fishing effort or catch from Pago Pago-based US purse vessels to be attributed to American Samoa but without an increase in bigeye landed by these vessels.

Read the full story at Samoa News

 

International Seafood Sustainability Foundation Releases Annual Report, Shares Results of Diverse Stakeholder Collaboration

June 25, 2015 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) released its annual report today Driving Change through Collaboration, which outlines progress and achievements for tuna sustainability in 2014 and lays out the various needs for continuous improvement of global tuna fisheries through collaboration and advocacy. The report also emphasizes efforts to encourage industry engagement, including efforts by ISSF participating companies to comply with ISSF conservation measures and commitments.

“Important steps were taken in 2014 to help ensure the longevity of tuna stocks and the greater marine ecosystem, but we also saw inaction in some fisheries that could have distressing impacts on stocks down the road,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson.

“In order for ISSF to continue to work towards its mission and encourage better management, we’ll need to continue to collaborate with stakeholders and governing bodies to get things done from a policy perspective and to move forward on market incentives, strengthened compliance and monitoring and data collection tools – in addition to other efforts capable of changing the status quo.”

Read the full release here