EU ends bluefin tuna season early over depleted stocks

The European Commission is closing the bluefin tuna fishing season early because of depleted stocks, imposing a ban that will take effect on Thursday.

The ban covers fishing grounds in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.

It affects industrial purse seine fishing, which accounts for more than 70% of the annual EU tuna catch, the Commission says.

The fleets are concentrated in France, Spain and Italy. The season was originally due to end on 15 June.

Purse seine nets have a rope that is drawn through rings to trap the fish, like a drawstring.

"The closure of the purse seine fishery is necessary to protect the fragile stock of bluefin tuna and to ensure its recovery, as envisaged by the recovery plan of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (Iccat)," the Commission said.

"The Commission has declared a zero tolerance approach towards overfishing and will take all necessary measures to ensure full compliance across the board."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10274242.stm

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Japan Plans to Ignore Any Ban on Bluefin Tuna

PARIS — Japan will not join in any agreement to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna under the United Nations treaty on endangered species, the country’s top fisheries negotiator said.

The negotiator, Masanori Miyahara, said in a telephone interview this week that Japan “would have no choice but to take a reservation” — in effect, to ignore the ban and leave its market open to continued imports — if the bluefin tuna were granted most-endangered species status.

“It’s a pity,” he said, “but it’s a matter of principle.”

Mr. Miyahara, Japan’s top delegate to the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, referred to as Cites, said the convention was the wrong forum for managing the fishing of the bluefin tuna.

A formal proposal for a ban — which requires the approval of two-thirds of its 175 member countries — is scheduled to be presented at a Cites meeting next month in Doha, Qatar.

The position of Japan, which consumes about 80 percent of the bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean, “is very simple,” Mr. Miyahara said. He said Japan believed that a different organization, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, known as Iccat, should manage bluefin tuna catches and protection.

Mr. Miyahara said Japan acknowledged that the bluefin tuna needed protection, but the endangered-species convention was “quite inflexible,” he said.

Historically, he said, almost no species added to the Cites endangered species list had ever been removed. “We don’t believe the bluefin tuna is endangered to that extent,” he said.

Meanwhile, Europe appeared to be moving to a compromise.

France, home of the largest Mediterranean bluefin fleet, said on Feb. 3 that it was prepared to back an international trade ban at the Cites meeting, to take effect after 18 months. But a person with knowledge of the European Commission’s thinking who asked not to be identified because the commission had not formally adopted the position, said on Friday that officials were planning to propose that Iccat be given a last chance to give depleted stocks of the tuna a chance to recover by temporarily banning all commercial trade in the fish.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/business/energy-environment/20tuna.html

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We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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Time is running out for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna - YOU can help them

Our friends at PEW Environmental Group need your help. They are trying to get the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reconsider new fishing regulations that could speed the depletion of Atlantic Bluefin tuna.

FROM PEW:
Atlantic Bluefin tuna is close to population collapse. Studies show that the western Atlantic population has declined 82% since 1970. Scientists estimate that there are only 41,000 reproductively mature bluefin tuna left in the western Atlantic. In March 2010, nations around the world will vote on a proposal to prohibit the international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna. The United States must lead the world in protecting these imperiled fish, and those efforts begin at home.

Unfortunately, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently unveiled a proposal to increase the killing of bluefin tuna in U.S. waters. At a time of great uncertainty and risk for this depleted species, NMFS should slow down and not rush to implement these new fishing regulations. In addition, NMFS must consider closing the Gulf of Mexico to pelagic longline fishing, because this wasteful fishing practice incidentally kills hundreds of imperiled bluefin tuna that use this area for reproduction each year.

You can help protect bluefin tuna today! Please send a letter to the NMFS before December 21, and tell them to slow down this misguided proposal.

TO LEARN MORE AND SEND YOUR LETTER CLICK HERE