29 Mar 2007 - Gland, Switzerland
– With a month to go before the start of
the 2007 fishing season for Mediterranean
bluefin tuna, WWF is asking the European
Union to hold back half its fishing quota
or watch the stock collapse.
The quota for this season’s fishery is
more than double that recommended by scientists
to avoid the high risk of collapse. The
global conservation organization is calling
on the EU to voluntarily heed scientific
advice and hold back 50 per cent of its
quotas to help conservation.
In a new briefing, On the Brink: Mediterranean
bluefin tuna – the consequences of collapse,
WWF shows that the International Commission
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
— the body charged with managing the fishery
— has allowed the quota for 2007 to increase
in defiance of its own scientists.
It also warns of the danger of removing
a top predator from the ocean with unknown
and potentially catastrophic impacts on
species lower down the food chain. Declining
populations of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean
could, for example, lead to a sharp increase
in squid, which feed on sardines. A significant
decline in sardine populations would put
at risk this important Mediterranean fishery.
“The EU can still choose not to be part
of this failure, not to be one of the parties
responsible for driving tuna to the brink,”
says Justin Woolford, Head of WWF’s European
Fisheries Campaign.
“Fisheries management in Europe must take
a new path. Throwing a lifeline to bluefin
tuna is the starting point.”
The EU is responsible for the bulk of the
total quota, with France, Spain and Italy
taking the majority of the catch. If EU
members cut their quota to preserve the
stock it would help reduce the threat of
collapse and encourage other fishing nations
to follow suit.
Pointing to the economic consequences of
a collapse, Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries
at WWF Mediterranean, says, “It is the traditional
tuna fishers who will suffer the most direct
impact from the stock’s collapse. The large
fleets will move on and plunder a different
ocean and a different species.”
WWF is also asking wholesalers and retailers
to support the call on the EU, and for those
companies dealing in Mediterranean bluefin
tuna — considered the finest sushi in the
world — to take the responsible decision
not to purchase from countries that refuse
to halve their quotas.
The EU Fisheries Council is meeting on
April 16–17. WWF is calling on the Council
to halve the quotas it allocates, close
the fishery in June to protect the peak
spawning month, and stay out of Libyan waters,
which are unregulated and offer the last
refuge for the breeding fish.
END NOTES:
• Governance of the world’s oceans is characterised
by a patchwork of organizations tasked with
the conservation and management of living
marine resources. Formal cooperation between
States through Regional Fisheries Management
Organizations (RFMOs) dates back to at least
the 1920s and there are now 16 RFMOs with
a mandate to establish binding management
measures for fisheries resources. Five tuna
RFMOs were established with the aim to conserve
and sustainable manage tuna stocks in different
oceans. These are:
• International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
• Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
(IATTC)
• Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)
• Western & Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission (WCPFC)
• CCSBT Commission for the Conservation
of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT)
Brian Thomson, Press Officer
WWF International
Sarah Bladen, Communications Manager
WWF Global Marine Programme
