Tuna Fishermen: Pauly Makes Unfair General Statement ff

Written by Natalia Freitas

Atuna.com last week published an interview with Dr. Daniel Pauly, a renowned expert on marine ecosystems from the University of British Columbia, showing his strong beliefs in how the industry will not take any action to preserve tuna stocks: “The fishermen’s interests go against the public’s interests. They are always trying to improve their catches and my job is to tell them not to.”   (See complete interview: /apps/public/ViewArticle.asp?ID=6010)

Francisco Tiu-Laurel, president of Frabelle Fishing Corporation in the Philippines, summarized Dr. Pauly’s declaration as “an unfair general statement”.

Mr. Tiu-Laurel stated that most tuna fishermen are responsible and are not constantly trying to improve fishing methods. However, he made a remark about the increase of tuna fishing vessels operating worldwide: “Other fishing companies, in America and Taiwan, are building bigger vessels. They are the ones catching more tuna. That should be stopped”. 

The Chief Fleet Operations for Pesqueras Echebastar Fleet S.A, Mr. Jose Luis Jauregui, expressed his complete disagreement with Dr. Pauly’s statement, but decided to make no further comments on the subject.

Atuna.com tried to contact the president of the WTPO –the World Tuna Purse Seine Organization-, Mr. Kazuo Shima, on the subject; however, no email or calls were returned by him up till now.