Posted by Barry on February 1, 2010 Atlantic albacore tuna have long paddled in the shadow of their bigger, more expensive, and more endangered cousins, Atlantic bluefin tuna. Now, “the forgotten tuna” is finally getting some respect, but for all the wrong reasons. Speaking at the Seafood Choices Alliance’s Seafood Summit in Paris last weekend, Phil Kline, Senior Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace said, “Albacore is managed, or should I say mismanaged, by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).” On ICCAT’s watch, according to Kline, bluefin populations have been driven to the brink of extinction. “ICCAT’s performance is an international disgrace. This does not bode well for albacore.” Scientific research on Albacore is scant, but the facts that do exist paint a grim picture. According to ICCAT’s own researchers, catches have dropped from 60,000 tons to 20,000, since the 1980s, but ICCAT still sets an annual limit that, at 32,000 tons, is more than 50% higher than the annual take. In the Mediterranean, the situation is more worrisome. There, catches collapsed by more than half in a single year to 2,359 tons in 2008 from 6,545 tons in 2007. “This should be a huge indication that Mediterranean albacore are in deep trouble,” said Kline. “When a fishery gives a warning sign like this it’s time to take action.” Unfortunately, taking action is not one of ICCAT’s strong points, even though its legal mandate is to maintain stocks at levels of maximum sustainable yield and to err on the side of precaution whenever there is doubt. “Despite dramatic drops in catches across the board, they tell fishermen, ‘We don’t know for certain whether the population is in collapse, so go ahead and fish,’” said Gerald Leape, Senior Officer of the Pew Environmental Group.“We say no data; no fishing. We have to take measures now to stop albacore from going down the same road as bluefin.” …
‘An International Disgrace’ Tuna Commission is Mismanaging Atlantic Albacore into Extinction
