Letter to the Editor by Dr. Michel Goujon, Director of Orthongel
I would like to react to the article entitled “EU Seiners Off Africa Blamed For Loss Yellowfin Catches In USA†of January 5th, from the Post and Courier, because the content of this article is particularly misleading and erroneous.
Without having to do a complicated research on the biology of yellowfin, the authors could have avoided many mistakes (unless intended) just by looking at the section on yellowfin of the ICCAT manual. I will therefore stick to references to this document to correct and clarify the erroneous assertions of the above-mentioned article although I could find many other publications (including from US scientists) to illustrate my corrections on the biological issues.
Yellowfin reproduction occurs in both western (Gulf of Mexico & Caraibean Sea) and eastern Atlantic. Some juveniles from the eastern Atlantic migrate towards the West. Mid-size fish are not vulnerable to the purse-seiners and migrate towards high latitude (Angola or Senegal). Adults migrate in several directions including transatlantic migrations from West to East (see map below). "Of the 9,000 specimens tagged, especially in the Northwest Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, so far a total of at least 50 tags have been recovered corresponding to transatlantic migrations of adult fishes, all of which had migrated from west to east between 1987 and 1998".
Assertion that little tags are returned by purse seiners is completely false as shown by the amount of recovery shown on this map and could be confirmed by ICCAT. Furthermore, scientists in the Indian Ocean have stressed the excellent tag return by purse seiners during the last tagging campaign.
“The evaluation of yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic should take place under the hypothesis of a single stock or panmictic population for the whole Atlantic, without ruling out the possible existence of degrees of populational structure and sub-populations homogenized by migration, since there are four spawning areas: the Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico, the southeastern Caribbean and Venezuelan waters.â€
Concerning the exploitation of yellowfin, EU vessels are in the Atlantic since the 60’s. Some boats have recently fled the piracy problem in the Indian Ocean after 2 vessels were hijacked and several attacks.
All EU vessels fill ICCAT logbook which are crosschecked by scientists with sampling at each landings. This fleet is the one that is the most monitored in the Atlantic and the assertions of the authors of the article on your website could be considered by the EU Commission as slanderous.
EU cannot allow unregulated commercial fishing and its regulation against IUU fishing is particularly binding (in particular, logbooks of purse seiners are systematically crosschecked by EU Fisheries Control Centers with VMS data, landing declaration and access licenses in order to deliver (mandatory) catch certificate).
Unreported catches effectively occur but from non-EU vessels under African flag as reported by the last SCRS report.
As shown by the authors, the catch of the rod and reel US fishery is highly variable from one year to another. As declared to ICCAT (starting from 1990), catches have varied between 545 tons (1990) and 5328 (2003) with periods of high catches (1994-1997, 1999-2001, 2003-2006) and periods of low catches (1990-1993, 1998, 2002, 2008-2009).
Finally, I am amazed that the authors mention high fishing pressure in the Gulf of Mexico and conclude that recent low catches are due to EU Purse seiner catch in the Eastern Atlantic...
Rather than fantasize on the flight responses of such clever yellowfin tuna, the authors could have been more realistic saying that “When you ask fishermen why stocks are overfished, whatever their nationality, they will always tell you it is the fault of the others.â€
Dr. Michel Goujon
Director of Orthongel
