SPF report identifies opportunities to improve tuna fisheries

Frozen tuna catch. (Photo Credit: Terje Engoe/Copyright: FIS)

WORLDWIDE
Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 22:50 (GMT + 9)
A new report on the state of the world’s main commercial tuna stocks released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) identifies opportunities for improvement in the status of the resource and in regional management systems for tuna fisheries.

The report, Sustainability of Main Commercial Tuna Stocks, evaluated 22 stocks of major commercial tuna species based on available public data and criteria from SFP’s FishSource.com programme.

Based on an assessment against the FishSource criteria on governance and stock status, none of the 22 tuna stocks were both very well managed and in very good conservation status, meaning that all of the stocks are in need of some improvement. Half of the stocks were adequately managed and with acceptable conservation status, while the other half were poorly managed and/or with poor conservation status.

Further highlights of the report include:

• Increasing demand, overcapacity, poor compliance with existing management measures, and rudimentary governance systems call into question the long-term sustainability of some tuna fisheries.
• Eastern Pacific Ocean skipjack and yellowfin tuna stocks have been fully exploited while eastern Atlantic Ocean skipjack, western Atlantic Ocean skipjack, western and central Pacific Ocean skipjack, and western and central Pacific Ocean yellowfin have been moderately exploited.
• Five tuna stocks (Atlantic Ocean bigeye, east Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean bluefin, north Atlantic Ocean albacore, south Atlantic albacore, Indian Ocean yellowfin) have had long-term declining trends in biomass but with signs of recent improvements.  The report notes these as “climbers.”
• Four stocks (Indian Ocean bigeye and albacore, west Atlantic Ocean bluefin, Atlantic Ocean yellowfin) have had long-term declining temporal trends in biomass. The report notes these as “fallers.”
• Future changes in the status of these stocks of “climbers” and “fallers” should be monitored closely to determine if the current management system successfully maintains the stocks at levels consistent with precautionary management targets.
• Of 95 fisheries that supply tuna products to North American, European, Australian, and other markets, 28 (30 per cent) were either certified or under full assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard or are in a fishery improvement project (FIP).

Given that all of these 95 fisheries supply tuna from stocks requiring improvements in management and fishing practices, the 70 per cent that are neither in the MSC programme nor in a FIP require attention: companies in the supply chains for these fisheries and other stakeholders are encouraged to establish appropriate FIPs to incentivize positive changes toward sustainability to a point where the fisheries would unconditionally pass an assessment against the MSC standard or equivalent.

Jim Cannon, CEO of SFP, noted, “The demand for tuna is always high but our report shows how fisheries are performing against the sustainability standards of the retail industry and there is a serious shortfall in tuna supplies that are managed sustainably. We encourage fisheries and suppliers in these tuna supply chains to establish and implement FIPs. Positive changes in management practices will help close the gap.”

Tuna fishing ban in Pacific partially lifted

After two-year ban to replenish depleted stocks, limited access granted to fish in Pacific, where 60% of world's tuna are sourced

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The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission turned down an appeal for full access to the Pacific for tuna fishing. Photograph: Alex Hofford/AFP/Getty Images

Pacific nations have reopened the Pacific high seas to commercial tuna fishing after a two-year ban imposed to preserve declining bigeye tuna stocks.
In a meeting in Guam last week, member countries of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) lifted the fishing ban on pockets 1 and 2 of the Pacific Ocean.
The WCPFC is a 25-member organisation including Australia, the EU, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines that oversees and regulates migratory fish stocks such as tuna and marlin in the Pacific. Its jurisdiction covers 20% of the planet's surface.
In January 2010, the WCPFC placed the ban on parts of the Pacific Ocean, where 60% of the world's tuna are sourced, to conserve the population of the bigeye tuna, which scientists classified as overfished. Other tuna species like skipjack, yellowfin, and albacore also found in the Pacific high seas but their numbers have not reached an alarming low.
Although it lifted the ban, the commission maintained that entry to the marine reserves would be limited, refusing proposals from the European Community and South Korea for a free-for-all access to one of the world's richest fishing grounds.
"The Pacific Commons is now open. But for all practical purposes, access will be limited," said Mark Dia of Greenpeace. "They knew that everybody would suffer if a free-for-all access is granted," he added.
 

The permitted areas for tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean The WCPFC approved the request of the Philippine government, the third top tuna harvester in the Pacific after Japan and South Korea, to fish in pocket 1 of the Pacific, which is bounded by the island nations of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.
In exchange for fishing access, the Philippine government must report its catch and limit the number of fishing vessels to 36, Dia said. Filipino vessels must also apply for international fishing permits before entering pocket 1.
The Philippines' fisheries director Asis Perez said the ban brought hard times to the local fishing sector. He also noted that the fishing ban was counterproductive for the Philippines as it forced fishing companies to harvest in its national waters, which is considered to be a spawning ground for various types of tuna, he said.