A few European countries are taking steps to save the world's bluefin tuna
population. This month, the European Commission (EC) announced its support for
a formal listing of the species as endangered under the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
which would in effect ban any international trade in bluefin tuna.
Japan is the world's biggest importer of bluefin tuna, which can weigh as much
as 300 kilograms or more. Considered a highly prized delicacy by the Japanese,
the fish are often sold to customers in wafer-thin slices at sushi bars and
restaurants. Whereas a fishing boat owner or captain might sell the fish to a
buyer at the dock for $30 to $40 per kilo, that price could increase
tenfold or more by the time it lands on someone's plate in Japan.
Prices tripled from 2007 to 2008. One bluefin tuna caught in Japanese waters
sold at auction in Japan this year for over $100,000, well short of the
all-time record which was set in 2001 at over $150,000.
According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan consumed 43,000 tons of bluefin tuna last
year, and "a total ban on trade of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tunas
would translate to a cut of about 20,000 tons".
It is easy to see why any deliberate and meaningful action taken that might
result in a global trading ban on tuna's bluefin species puts Japan and its
suppliers on edge. Chinese consumers are starting to show some degree of
interest in the fish, but it is nowhere near the Japanese consumption rate.
With 175 signatory countries, the CITES treaty requires a two-thirds majority
vote, and bans only affect international trade. Any bluefins caught in Japanese
waters and then shipped domestically within Japan's borders would not be
subject to provisions of a ban, if approved.
The EC will make its case to European Union (EU) member states on September 21.
However, a final decision will be made in Doha in March at the next meeting of
CITES signatories. EU states alone do not hold the majority of votes. Still, it
is widely believed that there will be enough votes in favor of the ban at the
Doha meeting if the EU elects to proceed.
Monaco, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are leading the
EU campaign for a ban. In July, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced
France's support as part of a firm government endorsement of sustainable
fisheries. This represents a 180-degree turn by France. While Monaco is not an
EU member state, it deserves credit for initiating the process in earnest. The
US and Canadian positions are unclear.
Japan, Italy, Spain, a handful of North African nations and the island nation
of Malta are seen as the biggest sources of resistance to this measure. Bluefin
tuna exports account for a substantial percentage of Malta’s estimated $120
million in annual fresh tuna exports, for example. There is no question that
since Sarkozy gave his speech, this situation is now being taken much more
seriously by those who frequent Japan's high-end sushi bars.
Also feeling the heat are the thousands of people who catch bluefins. Sushi bar
owners, chefs, along with fish transporters and distributors, are all likely to
feel the sting if a ban on fishing bluefin tuna is imposed.
On average, the annual bluefin tuna harvest, which is primarily conducted in
the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, has been capped at around 30,000 tons
per year. The total catch represents just a tiny fraction - 1% or less - of the
annual worldwide harvest of all tuna species combined, according to statistics
compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Last November, a team of researchers at the International Commission for
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) - which describes itself on its web site
as "an inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation
of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas" -
recommended that the annual bluefin catch be reduced by more than half from
32,000 tons in 2007 to 15,000 tons or less.
Some are hoping that this will be seen as an acceptable solution that will
offset the need for a total ban, which they label as too extreme a measure.
Others disagree. Critics contend that the actual annual bluefin catch is higher
than 50,000 tons, that these caps are always ignored, and that bluefin catch
numbers are deliberately and substantially underreported.
"Despite the fact that the quota has been ranging from some 30,000 tons to
22,000 tons in 2009, the ICCAT Scientific Committee on Research and Statistics
estimated in 2008 that catches in 2007 may have been up to 61,000 tons. This
means that this is one of the fisheries in the world with higher rates of
illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, a lot of which has been carried
out by the European fleet," said Sebastian Losada, Madrid-based oceans policy
advisor at Greenpeace International.
However, "ICCAT does not yet have a formal position on the matter of a
potential proposal to include Atlantic bluefin tuna in Appendix 1 of CITES. The
issue will be discussed at the 21st regular meeting of the commission in
November 2009," replied the ICCAT secretariat in Madrid to an e-mail query from
Asia Times Online.
Another item subject to approval later this year is an ICCAT proposal to limit
2010 total bluefin tuna catches to 19,950 tons, and to 18,500 tons in 2011.
Japan is estimated to consume roughly anywhere from 70% to 90% of the European
bluefin catch.
Among other things, what this heated debate is doing is focusing attention on
bluefin trade and catch statistics, where the numbers in terms of total catches
of the species and their value in dollars do not seem to add up.
The widespread practice of ranching bluefin, which is quite common in southern
Europe, Malta and Turkey, is an important factor. Ranching involves the netting
of juvenile tuna which are then transferred into large pens at sea where they
are fattened and ultimately harvested. Malta ranks as the world leader in
bluefin ranching.
One would think that ranching would help to keep the population of the species
stable, but as growing numbers of juvenile tuna are penned up in various
ranches, critics contend that the population's reproduction rate declines and
that stocks are not sufficiently replenished over time in the wild. Greenpeace
sees this practice, coupled with rampant over-fishing throughout the fishery,
as putting the species very much at risk.
In a recent report entitled, "The 2008 BlueFin Tuna dossier: An analysis of
Japan’s 2008 Fresh Ranched Bluefin Tuna Auction Markets Vs ICCAT’s 2008 Bluefin
Tuna Caging Declarations," which was prepared by Madrid-based Advanced Tuna
Ranching Technologies, SL, the authors echo the criticism of Greenpeace, and
other organizations which contend that the current state of international
bluefin tuna fishery management as a whole is not good, and that mismanagement
often involves simply looking the other way.
"Once again, ICCAT and most of its contracting parties have proven that their
fishing management policies for bluefin tuna are to be considered as an
international disgrace and that they should no longer be allowed to continue
dictating preposterous decisions that for the past 10 years have literally
wiped out a species that has been fished for over 7,000 years, from the
Mediterranean Sea," said the ATRT report. "The level of bluefin catching and
caging underreporting by ICCAT CPs [contracting parties] for 2008 could well
exceed 50% of the officially reported figures. Blatant cases of false 2007/2008
bluefin tuna catch declarations and unreported caging of live bluefin tuna,
have taken place ..."
The report mentions one EU country which reportedly "caged 692,550 kilograms of
live bluefin tuna at its two operative Tuna ranches during the 2008 bluefin
tuna fishing season; and yet, according to the EU Trade Statistic Database
Eurostat, [it] exported to Japan alone during the period July 1 to December 31
2008, 1,019,600 kilograms of fresh bluefin tuna".
During the bluefin fishing season, planes play a vital role. Pilots locate
large schools or "pods" of the fish. Once spotted from the air, pilots provide
directions to fishing boats that are often so-called "purse seiners" which feed
out a large net that sits on the surface, and then is gradually drawn shut,
leaving the slowly surrounded school of bluefin tuna with no avenue of escape.
If the bluefin tuna which have been caught are not designated for ranching,
they are brought ashore. From there they are trucked to an airport and whisked
away on cargo planes to a large auction house in Tokyo, where they are sold for
an enormous sum. The whole process guarantees a fresh supply of bluefin tuna
each day.
Years ago, this writer worked on bluefin tuna fishing boats operating in the
waters of Cape Cod Bay off Massachusetts, and loaded the fish onto trucks
usually around 3am to 4am. The fish were taken to Boston's Logan Airport where
JAL (Japanese Airlines) 747 cargo planes were loaded every morning before
departing for Tokyo. Vast quantities of bluefin tuna moved through Boston in
this manner, despite its relatively short fishing season.
Greenpeace and others assert that the over-exploitation of bluefin tuna has
taken place, though the fishing has been tightly regulated for years, via
shortened fishing seasons, annual catch quotas, partial bans and fishing
exclusion zones or closures. There was a temporary ban on European purse
seiners last year, for example.
"Bluefin tuna populations have fallen to critically low levels. Anyone who is
opposed to the proposed trade ban is clearly putting short-term commercial
interests above the survival of the species," said Saskia Richartz, EU oceans
policy director at Greenpeace in a release issued just after the EC decision
was announced. "Bluefin tuna has become endangered because of disgraceful
fisheries management in the EU. The suspension of trade is a last resort and it
merely buys the EU time to put its fisheries management in order."
Among other things, a curious split has emerged at the EU as the EU's
environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, is supportive of the ban, and
acknowledges the need for urgent action. Meanwhile, EU fisheries commissioner
Joe Borg is described as stuck between a rock and a hard place because of his
Maltese constituency. Borg is not in favor of the ban, while trying to make all
of the ICCAT's 48 contracting parties understand the gravity of the situation
and trying to convey a sense that nothing short of full compliance with
existing bluefin tuna regulations will prove viable. But it may be too late.
As the bluefin ban moves steadily ahead to its formal passage next March,
another potential tuna crisis looms for Asia, according to Greenpeace. This has
to do with the many tuna species which are harvested in huge numbers, and not
just bluefins.
Noting that the highest annual tuna catch ever recorded in the Pacific - an
estimated 2,426,195 metric tons - took place in 2008, Greenpeace is calling
attention to a disturbing pattern where once again signatory states to various
international agreements are largely ignoring those same pacts and allowing
rampant over-fishing of tuna species to occur. The nations responsible include
the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and the US in
particular, along with China and Spain to a lesser extent.
In an attempt to greatly reduce the level of tuna fishing in specified
international waters, and perhaps reduce the total catch by as much as a half
in the process, several Pacific Island nations together with Greenpeace and
others are requesting the closure of all four zones which are collectively
known as the "Pacific Commons" to all fishing, and declare them as marine
reserves.
In mid-2008, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and other island nations
declared two areas of the Pacific Commons adjacent to their territories to be
off-limits to tuna boats.
These nations were frustrated by the lack of oversight and the otherwise poor
fishery management practices of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission to which they belong, along with other Pacific island nations and
Australia, Korea, Chinese Taipei, China, Canada , France, the Philippines,
Japan, New Zealand, the US, Indonesia, Senegal and the European Community.
In this instance, the collective action being taken is intended to preserve and
strengthen not only the stocks of bigeye and yellowfin tuna, but also other
fish and endangered species.
Further tuna fishing restrictions may be imposed as part of a new Pacific
Commons-centric regime in December.
So, tuna is a hot topic in Japan these days. Swine flu fears are already
resulting in fewer sushi bar patrons. Tensions are rising at the fish auctions
in Tokyo, where tons of valuable tuna may disappear in the coming months.
Simply put, an EU-proposed ban on bluefin fishing is bound to make lot of
people nervous in Japan. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Peter J Brown is a freelance writer from the US state of Maine. He wishes
to thank the staff of Greenpeace and the ICCAT secretariat in Madrid for their
assistance.
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