Who will look out for the future of tuna?
Twelve conservation groups issue joint statement regarding IATTC meeting underway in California
Editor’s Note:
Below and attached is a joint press release from 12 non-governmental conservation organizations – of which The Billfish Foundation is a member – that are negotiating with the 16 member nations at the annual Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) meeting underway now in La Jolla, Calif. USA.
In the collective statement the organizations are challenging the IATTC to promote decisive, coordinated action to better respond to its mandate to manage tuna stocks and minimize impacts on associated species in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). Once again, the fate of tuna hangs in the balance as the Commission’s nations try to finally establish resolutions to avoid further tuna declines in the EPO.
With The Billfish Foundation the other 11 associations actively include: National Fisheries Institute, (NFI), Conservation International; World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA); Fauna & Flora International; Ocean Conservancy (OC); American Fishermen’s Research Foundation (AFRF); Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); The Center for Biological Diversity; BirdLife International; and the Malpelo Foundation
Dr. Russell Nelson, science director of The Billfish Foundation (TBF) along with Herbert Nanne TBF Central American Conservation Director, are leading the TBF delegation at the meetings.
Dr. Nelson observed, "The scientific staff's proposal to close the tuna purse seine fishery in the eastern Pacific for 12 weeks is a conservation mandate that is absolutely necessary to stop overfishing on tuna and provide some relief to the bycatch mortality on billfish, dorado, wahoo and other species vital to the health of the pelagic ecosystem.”
Here’s the joint statement:
PRESS STATEMENT
Press Statement from International and National Conservation, Animal Protection, Research and Recreational Fisheries Organizations Demanding Action from Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)
Who will look out for the future of tuna?
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 10, 2009) -- The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) is the intergovernmental management authority comprised of 16 member countries with the mandate to regulate fishing fleets to avoid over-exploitation of tuna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. For the past six meetings over more than two years the IATTC has not taken a single decision to manage tuna populations. So tuna populations must be doing great, right? Wrong.
Exactly the opposite is true. As member countries bicker over the details of how to avoid further depleting stocks, tuna is not recovering. And it is not just conservation groups that say so, but rather the IATTC’s own scientists. With increasing urgency at meeting after meeting these highly skilled fisheries experts have used some of the best fisheries information in existence as the basis for recommending a suite of urgently required specific, decisive actions to avoid over-fishing of tuna stocks.
Things are not looking good for the fish, especially the region’s bigeye tuna. These highly prized fish may be on the same downward spiral that has taken bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean to the brink of economic extinction.
And it’s not only the fish that are at risk. Tens of thousands of jobs in poor communities that dot the coasts of Latin America depend on tuna processing for their livelihoods. Fisheries operators and government representatives at the IATTC argue that adopting the recommended management actions would have dire economic consequences for these people, as well as tuna boat operators and their crews. Conservation, research and non-governmental fisheries organizations argue that either hard decisions are taken now or impacts on the fish and people dependent on marine resources will only get worse.
So who will look after the future of tuna? If recent history is repeated at the IATTC meetings this week in La Jolla, California, it will not be the IATTC. Fortunately, market mechanisms may force the IATTC’s hand. A new consortium known as the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is bringing together tuna processors, scientists and environmental non-governmental organizations to get behind the IATTC and other fisheries management organizations so they base management on scientific recommendations aimed to protect tuna stocks and reduce their impacts on non-target species such as dolphins, turtles, sharks and seabirds.
If the IATTC does not act soon, it will fall to consumers to make their tuna purchases from responsible processors and brands that offer fish from areas that are acting to ensure that tuna populations stay healthy for the long term. This would be not only good business and good news for the fish, but also for the consumers that enjoy tuna that is responsibly captured. But for now, all eyes are on the IATTC.
###
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media contacts:
Gavin Gibbons, National Fisheries Institute, 703.752.8891, ggibbons@nfi.org
Steve Ertel, World Wildlife Fund, 202.495.4562, steve.ertel@wwfus.org
Scott Henderson, Conservation International, +593 98718157, s.henderson@conservation.org
Ellen Peel, The Billfish Foundation, ellen_peel@billfish.org
Gladys Martinez, The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA),
+506.2283.7080, gmartinez@aida-americas.org
Jilly McNaughton, Fauna & Flora International, +44 (0) 1223 579473, jilly.mcnaughton@faunaflora .org
Timothy McHugh, Ocean Conservancy, 202.351.0492, tmchugh@oceanconservancy.org
