Bluefin tuna populations have dropped 97% since 1960 -- but that won't stop the tuna industry from continuing the deplete the oceans of this valuable fish.

Much prized for use in sushi, bluefin tuna sells for around 130 Euros a kilogram (that's $77 a pound at today's exchange rate). With such a high price on its head, the increasingly rare creature has been dramatically overfished, and scientists have warned for years now that the species would be heading toward extinction if fishing rates continued.

Now, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the group responsible for setting fishing quotas in the Mediterranean, has ignored the pleas of its own scientists and set next year's allowable catch at 22,000 tonnes -- 50% higher than advised. ICCAT also ignored advice to close fishing during the key hatching months of May and June.

The WWF called this decision a "mockery of science" and a "disgrace," while Greenpeace called it "disastrous and shameful."

The 2008 quotas was 28,500 tonnes. In 2007, ICCAT estimated that illegal fishing brought the total landings of bluefin to 60,000 tonnes.

So will bluefin tuna disappear in the name of short-term profits? It seems more than likely.

What's odd is that the tuna industry is already feeling the pinch from declining bluefin populations, but they won't give the fish a breather to insure that the fisheries can earn profits ten years from now.  According to a report earlier this year from Scienceline, "Until 2002, the tuna were consistently putting between $10 million and $20 million into the hands of New England fishermen each year. By 2006, this figure had dropped to only $1.7 million." While most of the overfishing occurs in the Mediterraenan, bluefin migrate all the way across the Atlantic and spawn in the Gulf of Mexico. The United States, one of 46 nations represented by ICCAT, supported the lower quota proposed by ICCAT scientists.

Bluefin tuna are considered critically endangered by the IUCN Red List, but it is not currently protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

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Posted by John Platt on Nov 25, 2008 at 10:27 AM
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