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“The Best Tuna Stocks In Living Memory”ff

20 January 2011 Australia

Source: ABC News

Fishing crews say the start of the tuna season in the Great Australian Bight is revealing the best stocks in living memory.

The Port Lincoln-based industry has faced quota cuts.

Chief executive of the Southern Bluefin Tuna Association, Brian Jeffriess, says scientific modeling used to justify the cuts has clearly underestimated stocks.

“We’ve never seen the numbers of fish like this. I certainly haven’t in my 25 years,” he said.

“I think the explanations are quite simple why a mathematical model was wrong and it's no-one's fault necessarily but people who’ve been in the business 40 years and have just never seen a season like this, it’s incredible.”

He says the stocks are a positive sign for the industry’s future.

“It’s one thing to have numbers of fish, that’s a big issue, but then the range of fish sizes that are out there and will come through in future years to harvestable fish, it’s remarkable – it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen in our life before,” he said.

Map of Fishing Zones



Facts

  • Australia and Japan have the biggest catches of SBT
  • Primary market in Japanese sashimi
  • Total value of fishery estimated at around $1 billion
  • Critically endangered on IUCN Red List of threatened species
  • Now broad concern that it’s being overfished