June 19, 2019 — Yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean is being overfished and if unsustainable harvesting continues, it will bring the stocks to near-collapse, according to press statement from the environmental non-governmental organization Blue Marine Foundation deployed ahead of the ongoing 23rd Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission.
The London, United Kingdon-based NGO is calling on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) to take “decisive action to rebuild yellowfin tuna stocks in line with its own scientific advice.” It is also calling on consumers in the European Union to stop buying yellowfin until the European Commission adequately penalizes those who break the rules placing limits on yellowfin tuna fishing.
In a new report, “A case study on the management of yellowfin tuna by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission,” the group said the Indian Ocean yellowfin is currently “the worst-managed yellowfin stock in the world, by the industry’s own admission.”
“Consumers have been misled by misreporting, greenwash[ing], and so-called improvement projects into believing that yellowfin tuna from the Indian Ocean is sustainably caught. This report shows that it is not,” Blue Marine Foundation Executive Director Charles Clover said. “It has been disgracefully overfished for some time and we now hear that some of what has been on sale may have been illegally caught by E.U. fleets.”