By Atuna
The 2011 global purse seine catches in all oceans combined of bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and skipjack might be considerably lower this year as result of reduction measures by the RFMO’s , but most of all due to the initiatives of eight Pacific island nations. All Regional Fisheries Management Organization involved with tuna have announced measures which are mainly focussed on the reduction of catches of bigeye and yellowfin , but effectively will also reduce catches of skipjack. Atuna.com checked with the several RFMO’s, and looked at the reduction measures per each ocean, to estimate what the expected impact will be on global supply to the canned tuna market for 2011.
As it looks now, 8 island nations in the Pacific Ocean, joined in the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), are taking several far reaching measures to ensure a sustainable catch of tuna for future years. The initiatives might have an even more significant higher impact than the measures taken by their regional fisheries management organisation – the WCPFC- so far.
The PNA countries are committed to maintaining far stretching initiatives that put a hard ceiling on this year’s fishing effort. This in effect will see a cut in the time that purse-seiners can spend fishing in their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by nearly a third. The aim is to reduce bigeye tuna by-catch by almost 30 percent in line with scientific advice. The restrictions will be notable in contributing to reduced catch of bigeye, yellowfin and skipjack. With PNA’s relative big share in worldwide tuna supply (26 percent of world tuna supply) the impact will be significant and a reduced supply might lead to increased price levels.
Another, more controversial measure of the PNA countries that became effective from the first of January was restricting the purse seine effort in the waters 10n to 20s, in the Central Pacific, an India-size area known as the Eastern High Seas. This semi-enclosed pocket of international waters, surrounded by EEZ’s of PNA countries, has a dramatically higher incidental catch rate of bigeye due to shallow thermoclines. By converting the pocket in a kind of “purse-seine-free†reserve, the PNA countries hope that pressure of overfishing on bigeye stock in their own waters will be relieved and - even more important ‑ try to avoid a shift of the fishing effort to this area as a result of the restrictions imposed in their own zone. The area may still be fished by longline, which has seen some reductions in effort but still accounts for 50% of the bigeye mortality.
The measures were taken one-sided by the PNA countries after a decision on the subject within the regional Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) was once again blocked by the EU and South Korea and other distant water nations. Though not their jurisdiction, the PNA countries are able to enforce a ban unilaterally through linking it to their system of licenses for foreign vessels in their own waters, which is proved to be critical to the operations of purse seiners in the region.
Tuna catches in the region continued to increase in the last several years. Although recognized as being a priority safeguarding the shrinking tuna stock, no direct measure could be agreed upon within the WCPFC. Until now almost all WCPFC tuna measures where the adoption of PNA initiatives, like the high seas pocket closures, FAD bans, VDS introduction and observers on board. All other measures tended to be limited to relatively insignificant agreements on bycatch and other non target species.
The blockade of the Eastern pockets has led to highly political fight between the PNA countries and those WCPFC-members who until now blocked catch reducing policies. Well informed sources told Atuna.com that as a result PNA countries are on collision course with some interests including the US. The US purse seine fleet so far has no commitment to stay out of the Eastern pocket, citing the existing fishing agreements with the countries that belong to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). Renegotiations of the agreements to date have had no result and the US seems to be determent to increase its tuna catching efforts in the region. This could possibly result in the PNA ending the existing agreements altogether. With a large fleet operating from Asia and receiving regional licences, and other concessions, the US fleet only pay a fraction of the access fees, and according to the PNA don’t sufficiently comply with tuna conservation and management measures. This has been increasingly controversial in the USA with the American Sampan governor calling for a review of the arrangement blaming the treaty expansion for the demise of the Samoan industry.
Other PNA catch reducing initiatives will be decided on later this year. These include introducing governance of FADs with obligatory satellite VMS tracking and online daily catch logs. The PNA countries also are working on seeing the skipjack fishing in their waters MSC certificated. Depending on the details of the certification, future impact of the effort on the supply of skipjack might be considerable.
Scientists continue to sight the effect of FADs in the Western Pacific, more in particular the Philippine and Indonesia areas as has having the highest adverse impact on the bigeye stock, despite the low catch per unit. This reflects the massive effort in using the devices.
More questionable is the effect of the measure of the Eastern Pacific the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) that obliged purse seiners to stop fishing in the area for a period of 62 days this year (also in 2012 and 2013) in one of two periods: 29 July to 28 September or from 18 November to 18 January 2012. The purse seine vessels of class 4 (between 182 and 272 metric tons) will be able to make only one single fishing trip of up to 30 days duration during the closure periods, but only with an observer of the International Dolphin Conservation Program (IDCP) on board. No fishing is allowed on yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack in the box between 96-110 West and 4 North and 3 South between 29 September and 29 October.
The impact of these measures is becoming questionable to some, since a few purse seine vessels recently started to move to the Western Pacific or other waters which remain open during the non-fishing period in the EPO (Eastern Pacific Ocean). Tuna watchers in the industry underline that such a closure will not conserve bigeye in the way a FAD closure does.
In the Indian Ocean, the last meeting of the last Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) decided a 2011 closure for purse seiners from the first of November until the first of December in the box which is located East of the Somalian coast (0 - 10 North and 40 – 60 West). The measure, which impact is unknown, seems to be neglectable in the light of the overexploitation of yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the region. Available scientific information from the Scientific Committee of the IOTC concluded that the stocks might have been ‘over to fully exploited’ in recent years. IOTC already in 2009 stated that the catch should not exceed MSY level of respectively 300,000 ton for yellowfin and 110,000 ton for bigeye. Nonetheless, the Scientific Committee will only this year have to come with recommendations for a TAC and quota system for yellowfin and bigeye. Such measures will not be decided on until the IOTC plenary session next year.
Assuming that these conservation measures in all oceans will be executed effectively, this will definitely lead to a cut in the global supply to canneries all over the world. Although measures are mainly aimed at yellowfin and bigeye, skipjack catches will definitely be affected. Compared to 2010, measures in the EPO and IO will hardly lead to any additional reduction in landings, but WCP catches might be more negatively affected. With the WCP being the world’s most important tuna catching ground accounting for more than 50 percent of the world supply, a 5 percent reduction in this area alone will have already have a tightening effect on volumes and will likely inflate prices. If we also filter- in recent influences of La Nina and the effect of piracy in the Indian Ocean, we may see again record high price levels in 2011.