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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 3
November 2009
Bluefin CITES trade ban: Everything depends on ICCAT
WASHINGTON, DC – The US government will not co-sponsor a proposal, formally submitted by the Principality of Monaco, to ban trade of bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which meets in March.
However, the US has every intention of supporting the proposal if serious steps are not taken during the Nov. 6-15 meeting of ICCAT to end overfishing in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, is expected to revisit the bluefin quota for eastern fishing nations during this 2009 meeting.
On Oct. 14, both National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Director Jane Lubchenco and Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland issued statements with headlines saying they were “announcing support for listing Atlantic bluefin tuna on international trade endangered species list.”
The headlines may have led some readers to believe that the two agency directors had bowed to pressure from the Pew Environment Group, which mounted a concerted campaign for the US to co-sponsor a CITES Appendix I listing proposal for bluefin.
Pew pressure
In an OpEd piece published in the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 9, Joshua Reichert, Pew Environment Group managing director, said the failure of ICCAT to bring eastern fishing nations under control left a CITES listing as the only option remaining for saving the Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Stating that NOAA “has traditionally been reluctant to oppose commercial fishing interests,” Reichert urged Lubchenco to give her agency “new direction (by) signaling strong support for conservation measures that would help stave off commercial extinction for this crucial species and others.”
The Lubchenco and Strickland statements clearly were a nod to Pew and to sportfishing interests, including The Billfish Foundation, which has called for a CITES Appendix I listing for bluefin. However, they left the door open for solutions short of an all-out trade ban that would derail the US fishery.
“Taking this position (not co-sponsoring the proposal) was critical and very positive in that it preserves US options to put maximum pressure on ICCAT, where the pressure belongs,” said Rich Ruais, executive director of the American Bluefin Tuna Association. “Then the US can decide what it really wants to do about CITES after ICCAT.”
Possible out
Ruais went on to say that, if ICCAT “does a good job,” the US will have the option of withdrawing its support for the CITES listing.
This echoes remarks made by both agency heads.
Said Lubchenco, “The US will consider amending or withdrawing support for the Monaco proposal if ICCAT adopts significantly strengthened management and compliance measures.”
Strickland put it this way.
“The eyes of the world will be focused on ICCAT and its effectiveness in addressing the threats of extinction for bluefin tuna,” he said. “Unless ICCAT adopts significantly strengthened management and compliance measures – specifically measures to address illegal, unreported, unregulated harvest – the US will exert complete and vigorous support for Monaco’s CITES Appendix I listing proposal.”
The US fishery potentially could collapse under a CITES Appendix I listing, since export to Japan would be banned and Americans would almost certainly be less inclined to eat domestically caught bluefin with such an anti-environmental stigma attached to it.
However, the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fishing nations also would suffer greatly under a CITES trade ban. And that, Ruais suggested, gives everyone going into ICCAT in November hope that the European Union will finally commit to reducing eastern bluefin quotas to levels recommended by scientists – 8,500 metric tons (mt) to 15,000 mt.
“If the Europeans resolve to lower the quota and adjust the timing of the spawning closure to conform to the science, it is reasonable to believe the US will likely oppose the listing,” he said.
Lorelei Stevens
Boats descend on
Cape Cod for fall
bluefin frenzy
CHATHAM, MA – Scores of boats rigged for serious tuna hunting descended on the tiny Cape Cod ports of Chatham and Harwich in late September and early October for what turned out to be a couple of great weeks of fall bluefin fishing.
Hundreds of giants were landed over a period of about three weeks as big schools moved through an area about 20-30 miles off Chatham. The bite was about a month earlier than last year when a similar mother lode of fish came through for about a week in mid-November. So this was the second year in a row that the legendary fall bluefin fishery materialized.
“These guys needed it to put their year together,” remarked Andy Baler of Nantucket Fish Co. in Dennis and Chatham, who handled bluefin landed by a number of local boats.
The catch was a real mixed bag, made up of fish of all shapes and sizes, although they tended to be big – some of them really big, with reports of a couple 1,000-plus-pounders being landed.
Baler said the average dressed weight was 650 pounds to 750 pounds. That compares to last year’s average dressed weight of about 586 pounds.
Quality, too, was mixed, with a few gems but also other fish not having great shape or fat content. And, especially among the larger, older fish there were some meat quality problems.
The price was not even close to what fishermen were getting back in the 1990s, though few people expect monster paydays from bluefin any more. Instead, the average price back to the boat was around $6-$7 per pound. Some smaller fish with good color, the kind prized by Japanese and US sushi chefs, brought more, closer to an average of $11-$14.
Baler pointed out that the US dollar-to-Japanese-yen exchange rate significantly boosted returns this year.
A couple of big coastal storms in mid-October put an end to the intensive fishery. But on Oct. 20, as CFN was going to press, the winds died down, the skies cleared, and a few boats were venturing out to see if the fish were still there.
Lorelei Stevens
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