Adieu, Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna?

Reproduced with permission from YaleGlobal Online (http://yaleglobal.yale.edu)

Global governance has failed to protect biodiversity

Alex David Rogers

YaleGlobal , 17 March 2010

Draining the ocean: Japanese fisherman with his haul of Atlantic blue fin tuna which is facing extinction

LONDON: Mix tasty fish from the wild with growing global demand and industrial fishing by greedy fleets, and you have a recipe for disaster. That is what is facing the Atlantic blue fin tuna, a single one of which was auctioned in Tokyo’s Tsukiji market earlier this year for more than $181,000. At the recently held meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in Doha, Qatar, a valiant attempt was made to prevent the collapse of this stock. But given the intransigence of major consumers like Japan to curb their appetite and the inability of rich nations to agree to manage better the global commons like the ocean, the future for the magnificent Atlantic blue fin tuna may be doomed.

Alarmed by the rapid decline of Atlantic blue fin tuna stock, the Principality of Monaco proposed at the Doha meeting to ban all international trade in the species from the North Atlantic. They were backed by several European states, the USA, and others, but opposed by Japan, the most lucrative market for blue fin tuna where it is eaten in high-end restaurants. How ironic that this is the International Year of Biodiversity, when the rate of loss of species globally was supposed to be reversed and that Japan is hosting the Tenth Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Given the intransigence of major consumers like Japan to curb their appetite, the future for the magnificent Atlantic blue fin tuna may be doomed.

The decision on the Atlantic blue fin tuna followed findings by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the organization charged with managing the spawning stock biomass of blue fin tuna, that populations in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean have declined from more than 305,000 metric tons (mt) in 1958 to less than 79,000 mt in 2007, an absolute decline of more than 74 percent, most of which occurred in the last 10 years. The figures for the western Atlantic are worse, with a decline from 49,000 mt in 1970 to less than 9,000 mt in 2007, more than 82 percent. Some studies suggest that these dramatic decreases in spawning stock biomass may be underestimated. Such catastrophic declines in stock size, for a species that is now recognized as having low productivity, mean that Atlantic blue fin tuna stocks are likely to collapse in the next few years and may become “critically endangered” under international criteria used to estimate extinction risk.

Over recent decades, other valuable fish stocks have been lost too. Perhaps the most infamous was the collapse of North West Atlantic cod which had supported a fishing industry since medieval times. In this region, cod were a major predator and its loss led to a shift in the marine ecosystem where plankton-eating fish and crustaceans such as lobsters and shrimp became more common. These species are lower on the food chain and are now fished, a phenomenon known as fishing down the food web (shifting fishing effort from predators to their prey). As a result of the impacts of fishing on the ecology of the northwestern Atlantic, the cod have not returned.

What lies behind the proposal to list blue fin tuna on the endangered species list is a staggering failure of fisheries management.

Japan has stated that it will ignore a ban in trade in blue fin tuna by CITES. This would significantly weaken the convention, with far-reaching implications for the conservation of endangered species globally. How realistic such a threat is given that most of the fish are caught by non-Japanese vessels is hard to see.

What lies behind the proposal to list blue fin tuna on the endangered species list is a staggering failure of fisheries management and flagrant disregard for the laws and agreements surrounding the sustainable use of the ocean’s resources.

To judge by the way the contracting parties to ICCAT have consistently voted themselves quotas above scientific recommendations, one would suspect that higher earnings, rather than sustainability, were the main concern. In 2008, faced with evidence of the annihilation of blue fin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, ICCAT set a quota of 22,000 mt for 2009 and 19,950 mt (reduced to 13,500 mt in 2009) for 2010 despite scientific recommendations for catches between 8,500 mt and 15,000mt. However, even the agreed catch levels have been disregarded by the fishing fleets of many of the Contracting Parties of ICCAT. In addition, there was ample evidence of underreporting of the catch and laundering of fish by undeclared transhipment to freezer vessels (reefers). The European Commissioner, Jo Borg, openly acknowledged in 2008 that French vessels had not reported their catches, while Italian vessels had exceeded their quota, in some cases by more than double. Spotter planes were also being used to locate shoals of tuna, a practice that was prohibited by ICCAT, and states were failing to report on the movements of their vessels. In 2007, tuna imports, reported to ICCAT by Japan, amounted to more than 32,000 mt when the quota for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean was less than 30,000 mt. Taken together, consumption and trade of tuna within European Mediterranean countries and the catch by the Japanese fleet, ICCAT scientists estimated that the total catch for 2007 may have amounted to 61,000 mt.

Such rampant overfishing has been encouraged by a failure to limit access to blue fin tuna fisheries with a result of massive over-capacity in European and other fishing fleets.

Such rampant overfishing has been encouraged by a failure to limit access to blue fin tuna fisheries with a result of massive over-capacity in European and other fishing fleets in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.

The growth in fishing is, of course, driven by growing demand for variety with the affluent, health conscious population the world over embracing fish and Japanese sushi, in which Atlantic blue fin tuna is a prized item.

Following the Second World War distant-water fishing fleets, including that of Japan rapidly expanded across the globe and fished for large predatory species such as tuna, marlin and sharks. Now industrial corporations are involved in the transport and trade of tuna from all around the world. The Mitsubishi Corporation is responsible for 40-45 percent of the trade in Mediterranean tuna and holds significant stakes in the international companies that both fish, ranch, transport and sell tuna from the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Mitsubishi is now supporting new catch certification schemes and other conservation measures for Atlantic blue fin tuna. However, there has been speculation that tuna are being frozen in anticipation of future price rises and that industry has, until recently, exerted a negative influence through its governments on negotiations at ICCAT regarding Atlantic blue fin tuna.

For the Atlantic blue fin tuna there is no place left to hide.

For the Atlantic blue fin tuna there is no place left to hide. Spawning and feeding aggregations of this magnificent species are vulnerable throughout their distributional range. Unless action is taken immediately it is likely that the species will largely disappear from the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. ICCAT has promised to “get tough” on compliance and has announced measures to reduce fleet capacity but it is too little, too late. Sadly, overfishing is driving other marine species into catastrophic decline and some, including several shark species, are also subject to CITES proposals to be discussed next week. The oceans were once incredibly rich in marine life, yet poor management may be costing fisheries $50 billion per year in terms of lost revenue. Those are the economic losses. But the losses in terms of ecosystem, biodiversity, and food security at a time when the human population on Earth is increasing dramatically are incalculable.

Dr. Alex David Rogers is Reader and Scientific Director of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (http://www.stateoftheocean.com).

Rights:Copyright © 2010 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

BBNJ - Presentation of UN Resolution 61/105 Report

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean presented preliminary fundings of its soon to be published report, 'The Implementation of UN Resolution 61/105 in the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries on the High Seas' at the third ad hoc informal working group meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (known as BBNJ), at the United Nations 1st – 5th February 2010.

The meeting was convened to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction.



Professor of Fisheries Biology emeritus, Richard Haedrich from the Department of Biology at Memorial University gave a presentation at a side event where a number of leading scientists spoke about the mapping of VMEs, high seas areas closed to bottom fishing, biogeographic classifications of deep-sea and open ocean ecosystems and options for conservation of biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. Professor Haedrich gave an indication of how well RFMOs are implementing UN GA Resolutions 65/105 and 64/72 by citing research that shows that fish stocks are continuing to decline, impact assessments are varying in quality and quantity, closures are not being widely applied and are tending to reference sponges and corals only. The move-on rule was also discussed.' The report will be launched this spring.

Despatch from the Southern Ocean

Dr Alex Rogers post from Royal Research Ship James Cook

I’m in the Southern Ocean on the Royal Research Ship James Cook. The weather has been amazingly calm for a week, very unusual for this part of the ocean. Last year we had a tremendous storm here with swells of 15m. It’s cold, and during winter the ocean freezes as up to 15 million km2 of winter sea ice forms around the continent of Antarctica. An extreme environment but one where marine life can appear to be abundant to the point of exuberance. Over the last few days we have been surrounded by groups of noisy chinstrap penguins braying to each other and investigating our underwater vehicle when it returns to the surface from the deep. Giant petrels, ranging from a dirty grey or brown to almost pure snow white are gathered around the ship. Delicate blue-grey prions speed around the vessel almost constantly.

Photograph Dr Alex Rogers/IPSO

Most spectacular have been the whales. Humpback whales have visited us several times, swimming around the ship. Sticking their heads out of the water to observe the curious thing on the surface of the oceans, behaviour called spy-hopping. Lolling on their backs and sticking their flukes in the air. The day before we had probably fifty fin whales and other species pass us, all storming south no doubt to rich feeding grounds brimming with pink krill, a small shrimp that forms a critical link in the food chain from microscopic plants (phytoplankton) to whales, penguins and seals. Smaller minke whales have also been seen with distinctive white markings on their flanks, lunging out of the water chasing krill or fish.

Here you can really get a hint of just how bountiful the ocean was in times past. Amazingly I looking at a system that man has severely disturbed in the past. The large whales of the Antarctic were almost all reduced by hunting in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries to 5-10% of their pre-exploitation population sizes. Antarctic and sub-antarctic fur seals were hunted almost to extinction. Elephant seals were decimated with over 2 million taken from the Scotia Sea region alone. Even king penguins were killed for food and for their oil.

The exploitation did not stop there. In the 1960s and 1970s industrial fishing came to the Antarctic. The fisheries were not regulated and initial catches were huge, amounting to over 2 million tonnes by 1992 in the Atlantic sector of the Antarctic alone and about 3 million tonnes overall, not including fish taken by illegal fishing vessels after the establishment of the Convention for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). Over the initial period of fishing, which occurred during my lifetime, Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic fish stocks were serially depleted and have never recovered. The ecosystem-wide impacts of removal of these fish on their predators, animals like elephant seals, fur seals and penguins is only just now being recognised by scientists. It may be the case that such unrestrained removal of Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic fish stocks have moved these ecosystems into a less stable state where climate change is likely to have far more profound effects on these predators than it would have in a healthy ecosystem.

One other effect of these fisheries has been the by-catch of albatrosses by Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic long liners. The birds are attracted to the baited hooks deployed by fishing vessels and become snared and drowned. As a result of this and other human pressures all of the albatross species we have seen during our trip are in trouble, even though in areas of the Southern Ocean, fishers have adapted their fishing methods to prevent this wasteful slaughter. Scientists estimate the level of danger of extinction of an animal through the Red List, maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Under this system wandering and grey-headed albatross are classified as Vulnerable, light mantled sooty albatross as Near Threatened and sooty and black-browed albatrosses as Endangered with extinction.

So, I can only stand here and marvel at the spectacular sites the Southern Ocean still has to offer. However, I do it in the full knowledge that 200-300 years ago this ocean hosted a spectacular abundance of life and is now a shadow of its former self. I cannot perceive what it must have been like, the baseline has truly shifted, the ecosystem has become less stable. What the future holds for Antarctica is uncertain yet this is still perceived by many people as a near-pristine environment in comparison to the oceans elsewhere. This is truly a concern, the oceans are part of the life-support system for the entire planet and we, like almost all other life, are dependent on them.

"...The belief among scientists is that the window of opportunity to take action is narrow. There is little time left in which we can still act to prevent irreversible, catastrophic changes to marine ecosystems as we see them today. "

New scientific methods are emerging that enable us to understand the Ocean in ways we have never done before.

We are able to open up a new understanding of how humankind impacts on the Ocean, how the stresses exerted upon it can be alleviated to restore Ocean health, and the consequences of a failure to do so...."

Dr Alex D Rogers
Scientific Director
IPSO