14
Nov 2008 - Barcelona, Spain: A European
fisheries report demonstrating continuing
widespread infringements by bluefin tuna
fleets despite increased fleet surveillance
in the Mediterranean has been delayed until
after the conclusion of next week's key
international tuna commission meeting to
decide on a new management regime for the
fishery.
The existence of the
report, revealed today by The Economist,
undermines Europe's promise of support for
strong action possibly including temporary
closure of the fishery at the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.
It also undermines European
claims that it is bringing rampant bluefin
overfishing under control, with a summary
hurriedly produced after repeated demands
from the European Parliament noting that
extensive consultations with fishers and
improved surveillance and inspections had
little effect on the low priority industry
gave to ICCAT rules.
“After decades of ignoring
the science, ICCAT and member states are
now trying to outdo each other in rhetoric
about how much the science must matter,”
said Dr Sergi Tudela, Fisheries director
for WWF Mediterranean.
“The information gathered
by Europe’s Community Fisheries Control
Agency provides unprecedented data on the
Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery that
would have been extremely precious for ICCAT
scientists to make appropriate management
recommendations.
“Shockingly, this valuable
information has been kept hidden from scientists,
thus undermining the quality of fisheries
management advice – and the European Community,
representing all EU Members States at ICCAT,
must be held responsible for this.”
Earlier this year, WWF
welcomed Europe's promise of vastly improved
inspection and surveillance of the bluefin
fleet and fattening farms by the CFCA, based
in Vigo, Spain.
The Economist claims
that a comprehensive CFCA report - the product
of a €20 million investment in seeking to
reign in the bluefin fishery - went to the
European Commission in August and that an
abbreviated version only was provided to
the European Parliament’s Fisheries Commission
earlier this month.
The abbreviated version
is alarming enough, noting that “the level
of apparent infringements detected in the
tugs and the purse seiner fleet is considerable”,
“the (illegal) use of spotter planes for
searching bluefin tuna concentrations is
still wide spread” and “as regards the recording
and reporting of bluefin tuna catches .
. . the ICCAT rules have not been generally
respected”.
European Fisheries Commissioner
Joe Borg has said that the last management
rules for this beleaguered fishery – agreed
at a previous ICCAT meeting in Dubrovnik
in 2006 – would work, as long as there was
compliance with the rules.
“This latest evidence
of widespread non-compliance, information
that has been hidden from ICCAT scientists
and decision-makers, should be case enough
that the only solution now is to close the
Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery – pending
a complete overhaul of the fiasco,” Dr Tudela
said.
+ More
Tuna commission faces
final roll of the dice on future of Mediterranean
bluefin
17 Nov 2008 - Marrakech,
Morocco - The 46 Contracting Parties to
the International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting today
in Marrakech, Morocco until 24 November,
will decide whether Mediterranean bluefin
tuna – and the fishery that depends on it
– can be saved from collapse.
ICCAT meets this year
with mounting evidence of impending collapse,
with its own review saying management of
the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery is
an “international disgrace” and a “travesty”.
Increasing numbers of scientists, industry
bodies and governments – as well as retailers,
chefs, restaurants and consumers – are joining
WWF’s call for the fishery to be shut down
until rampant overfishing can be brought
under control.
“We have been brought
to the need for a total closure of this
fishery by years of fishing quotas being
set at twice the levels advised by scientists,
and fishing capacity and activity being
allowed to build up to twice the level of
allowable catches – this is absurd, and
it is dangerous,” says Dr Sergi Tudela,
Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“Government members
of the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) have already expressed
their overwhelming support for the immediate
closure of the Mediterranean bluefin fishery
in a resolution at the World Conservation
Congress in October”, adds Dr Tudela.
WWF calls on ICCAT Contracting
Parties to be bold in supporting the closure
– with a view to a sustainable fishery in
the long term. Once the Mediterranean bluefin
has initiated recovery, WWF is advocating
new management measures that must include
a seasonal closure during the key spawning
months of May, June and July, tuna sanctuaries
in main Mediterranean breeding areas, and
annual total allowable catches in line with
scientific advice – and a reduction in capacity
of industrial fleets.
“The evidence is that
combined legal and illegal fishing correlates
more or less to fleet capacity,” continues
Dr Tudela. “These fleets were built up with
perverse subsidies, but they do not make
ecological or economic sense – the capacity
of a fishing fleet must be directly related
to the capacity of a fish resource, and
the sad fact is that Mediterranean bluefin
is now disappearing before our eyes through
years of overexploitation.”
“What kind of Mediterranean
Sea do we want to leave to our children?”
asks Dr Tudela. “ICCAT Contracting Parties
have a historic responsibility this year
more than ever to apply science and close
the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery –
for the sake of the future of a magnificent
species, of the wider marine ecosystem within
which it swims, and of thousands of jobs
and families that rely on its sustainable
exploitation.”
Gemma Parkes,
WWF Mediterranean Communications Officer
Phil Dickie,
WWF International News Editor
+ More
Thousands join bluefin
tuna boycott
20 Nov 2008 - Marrakech,
Morocco: Close to 16,000 citizens from 149
countries have signed up to join numerous
restaurants, retailers and chefs in boycotting
Mediterranean bluefin tuna – until stocks
have recovered and the fishery is properly
controlled and managed.
WWF has presented the
petition, on behalf of 15,941 concerned
individuals, to top fisheries decision-makers
today in Marrakech, Morrocco where the 46
Contracting Parties of the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas (ICCAT) are meeting to decide the
future of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean.
“Thousands of consumers
from across the world are voting with their
wallets by not buying or eating endangered
Mediterranean bluefin tuna,” said Dr Sergi
Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“WWF hopes ICCAT acts on this strong plea
from global citizens.”
As increasing numbers
of responsible consumers say no to bluefin,
the list of chefs, restaurants and retailers
around the world that have stopped serving
and selling bluefin is also growing. The
trailblazers – Auchan in France, Carrefour
in Italy, Coop in Italy and Switzerland,
ICA in Norway, Moshi Moshi in the UK, and
Memento in Spain – have now been joined
by many others in taking bluefin off their
menus and shelves.
These are Benoît
Delbasserue French chef; Casino French supermarket;
Coop Norwegian supermarket; Deutsche See
German processor; Elior French restaurant
chain; Gottfried Friedrichs German processor;
M&J UK seafood supplier; Migros Swiss
supermarket; Relais du Parc French restaurant;
Sergi Arola, Dario Barrio, Karel Bell –
Spanish chefs; and over 50 restaurants in
Monaco.
“Bluefin tuna was one
of the star items on our menu, but the critical
situation of the stocks made me take it
off the plates so that diners can keep enjoying
it in years to come,” said Sergi Arola,
Spanish celebrity chef. “I believe it’s
my duty to take care of the sustainability
of a dish as well as its taste.”
“ICCAT members are under
pressure from numerous countries, international
institutions, scientists and even their
own review to close this fishery and allow
it to recover,” said Dr Tudela. “Now they
are also coming under pressure from more
and more of their own citizens, their noted
chefs, their leading restaurants and their
leading marketers.
"It is time for
ICCAT to take note of this growing market
aversion to the tuna slaughter and to finally
follow its so-far hollow boast to act in
accordance with the science.”
Dr Tudela noted that
should ICCAT fail to act this week in Marrakech,
support would grow for moving from attempting
to control fishers to using a trade ban
to save the species from collapse.
+ More
Europe sits on damning
bluefin tuna report
14 Nov 2008 - Barcelona,
Spain: A European fisheries report demonstrating
continuing widespread infringements by bluefin
tuna fleets despite increased fleet surveillance
in the Mediterranean has been delayed until
after the conclusion of next week's key
international tuna commission meeting to
decide on a new management regime for the
fishery.
The existence of the
report, revealed today by The Economist,
undermines Europe's promise of support for
strong action possibly including temporary
closure of the fishery at the International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.
It also undermines European
claims that it is bringing rampant bluefin
overfishing under control, with a summary
hurriedly produced after repeated demands
from the European Parliament noting that
extensive consultations with fishers and
improved surveillance and inspections had
little effect on the low priority industry
gave to ICCAT rules.
“After decades of ignoring
the science, ICCAT and member states are
now trying to outdo each other in rhetoric
about how much the science must matter,”
said Dr Sergi Tudela, Fisheries director
for WWF Mediterranean.
“The information gathered
by Europe’s Community Fisheries Control
Agency provides unprecedented data on the
Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery that
would have been extremely precious for ICCAT
scientists to make appropriate management
recommendations.
“Shockingly, this valuable
information has been kept hidden from scientists,
thus undermining the quality of fisheries
management advice – and the European Community,
representing all EU Members States at ICCAT,
must be held responsible for this.”
Earlier this year, WWF
welcomed Europe's promise of vastly improved
inspection and surveillance of the bluefin
fleet and fattening farms by the CFCA, based
in Vigo, Spain.
The Economist claims
that a comprehensive CFCA report - the product
of a €20 million investment in seeking to
reign in the bluefin fishery - went to the
European Commission in August and that an
abbreviated version only was provided to
the European Parliament’s Fisheries Commission
earlier this month.
The abbreviated version
is alarming enough, noting that “the level
of apparent infringements detected in the
tugs and the purse seiner fleet is considerable”,
“the (illegal) use of spotter planes for
searching bluefin tuna concentrations is
still wide spread” and “as regards the recording
and reporting of bluefin tuna catches .
. . the ICCAT rules have not been generally
respected”.
European Fisheries Commissioner
Joe Borg has said that the last management
rules for this beleaguered fishery – agreed
at a previous ICCAT meeting in Dubrovnik
in 2006 – would work, as long as there was
compliance with the rules.
“This latest evidence
of widespread non-compliance, information
that has been hidden from ICCAT scientists
and decision-makers, should be case enough
that the only solution now is to close the
Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery – pending
a complete overhaul of the fiasco,” Dr Tudela
said.
