Australia: Overfishing Tuna Caused By International Fleetsff

The 2006 Australian Fishery Status Report, compiled by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, says there is insufficient data to assess the future of more than half of Australia’s commercial fisheries, and “robust assessments” of sustainability are difficult.

It also questions whether long-line tuna fleets are complying with new measures to reduce the deaths of seabirds particularly albatross and shearwaters that are caught by the baited hooks and drowned.

Last year, observers reported “a high rate of non-compliance or partial compliance” with these mitigation measures, “resulting in high catch rates of seabirds by some longliners, the report says.

But federal Fisheries Minister Senator Eric Abetz claimed all stock classified as overfished were migratory species, managed internationally and overfishing was “the result of excessive fishing pressure from international fleets, not Australian vessels”.

Opposition fisheries spokesman Senator Kerry O’Brien said the minister was “caught in a web of denial about the status of Australia’s fisheries”.

The report showed overfishing remained a serious threat with a new species swordfish in the Indian Ocean added to this year’s list of overfished stocks in Australian waters, he said, “Although the Australian swordfish catch is small, it has been heavily overfished by Japanese and Taiwanese longliners and the report says current fishing levels are unsustainable,” Senator O’Brien said.

Of the 97 fish stocks assessed by the report, 27 were classified as not overfished, 19 were overfished and 51 were rated as “uncertain” due to lack of information.

Species rated as overfished include southern bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna,deepwater sharks, eastern gemfish, orange roughy, southern scallop and silver trevally.

Senator O’Brien said a report last month by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics had confirmed a 13 per cent fall in the volume of Australian fisheries production inv 2005-06 and a 16 per cent fall in the value of Commonwealth fisheries production to $278 million.

”In real terms, the gross value of Australian fisheries production has fallen 25 per cent since 1999-2000, while the value of exports has declined by 36 per cent.”  Meanwhile, the value of seafood imports continues to grow, increasing 8 per cent to $1.26 billion in 2005-06.

”The Howard Government has destroyed jobs in the Australian seafood industry and replaced quality Australian produce with cheap Asian imports.”