Sunday, November 15, 2009

ICCAT blows it

The commission that is supposed to protect bluefin tuna blew the call and set the quota for Mediterranean/eastern Atlantic bluefin at 13,500 tons.

This is ludicrous. Hopefully now CITES will take over, but that meeting is four months away. The future for this bluefin stock is bleak.

Atlantic bluefin trade ban now vital as tuna commission fails to take action again


Dr Tudela said a new provision for a 2011 fishery closure if the fishery was detected as being at serious risk of collapse was difficult to reconcile with the scientific committee’s recent data that the stocks are already at less than 10-15 per cent than unfished levels. “The trends for bluefin tuna are very clear and we need to act on the forward view rather than the rear mirror view to avoid collapse,” Dr Tudela said.

WWF had lobbied the meeting for a fishing suspension and determined action against illegal fishing, estimated to considerably inflate the most recent (2008) catch estimates of 34,120 tonnes. During the Recife meeting almost all harvesting countries were formally identified by ICCAT for breaking its rules – like EU tuna fattening farms accepting fish without proper documentation.


My question: when an organization ignores the advice of its own scientists, what good is it? I'm going to have to ponder that one.

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