Barbera Block: ICATT Not Capable Of Managing The Future Of Bluefinsff

Written by Greg Weston

Despite reduced quotas and strict protections, Canada’s Atlantic bluefin tuna stock faces depletion due to international mismanagement and demand for sushi meat from the prized fish, researchers say.

“There’s a sushi economy around the globe that’s evident in any North American supermarket or town. It’s ubiquitous,” says Barbara Block, a Stanford University professor of marine sciences who has studied bluefin tuna for 25 years.

Bluefins, which can weigh up to 675 kilograms and grow up to four meters in length, are a lucrative commodity on the international sushi market. In 2001, a 201-kilogram bluefin was sold at a Tokyo fish market for a record-breaking US$173,600. Despite growing sushi demand in countries like China and Russia, it is estimated that 75 per cent of bluefins caught globally are exported to Japan.

“You work out the per-pound price, and they’re worth their weight in gold, so it’s not surprising that there’s such intensive fishing pressure,” says Shana Miller, science and policy coordinator of Tag-A-Giant, a bluefin tuna research and policy foundation.

“In the western Atlantic, it’s pretty well accepted that the population has declined by over 80 per cent in the last 30 years. In the eastern Atlantic, the decline isn’t as severe, but recent declines are just astronomical, in the order of 15 per cent per year, because fishing pressure has increased so much,” says Ms. Miller.

Ms. Block says the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization that manages global tuna stocks, is mishandling the bluefin fishery.

In November, the commission lowered the annual quota from 28,500 to 22,000 tons, despite advice from scientists for a maximum of 15,000 tons.

”It’s outrageous. It’s extraordinary and embarrassing for (the commission) when it’s so clear the bluefin is in trouble, much like the cod was, that the scientific commission told them they had to cut their quotas, and they actually didn’t do it. It tells us that (the commission) is not capable of managing the future of bluefins.” Ms. Miller says illegal fishing, particularly by countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, pushes the actual catch much higher than the quota.

”This year, the catch will probably end up being in the 60,000… ton range. (The commission’s) member nations in the eastern Atlantic have shown no ability to comply with the quotas, so even if they did reduce the quota, we could very well see another 60,000… ton catch,” she says.

The Tag-A-Giant Foundation is the result of a program started in 1996 to monitor the movements of bluefin tunas using electronic tracking tags. In October, the 1,000th tag was implanted in a tuna off Port Hood.

Leading the field team was Mike Stokesbury, director of research at Dalhousie University’s Ocean Tracking Network. Mr. Stokesbury says the information gathered by the program is essential to properly managing bluefins, which account for about $11 million of Nova Scotia’s annual fisheries revenue.

“Back when the program started, people knew very little about the oceanic movements of bluefin tuna. We need as much information as we can get,” he says.

Ms. Block, the scientific adviser to Tag-A-Giant, says the contribution of fishermen is vital to the protection of the industry.

“The future of bluefin is at stake in the North Atlantic right now. Canada has a really important role in the science, and the Canadian fishers who have been out there helping both American teams doing the tagging up there should be commended.”