Saving Seafood

MARCEL KROUSE: IOTC should approve yellowfin tuna catch cap

March 9, 2021 — Marcel Kroese is WWF’s global tuna lead and has been involved in marine conservation as a researcher and professional since 1992, with working experience in East and West Africa, the Pacific, and Central America.

Picture a tuna. No, not a can. A fish. It is sleek and strong. Its scales flash as it dives like a torpedo to depths of 1,000 meters. If it were a car, James Bond would drive it. If it were a cat, it would be a cheetah. Yet these spectacular, athletic sea creatures are not afforded the same awe and wonder by humans as the big cats. We value tuna as a luxury food or a more humble “shelf-stable protein,” which is handy when stocking up for a pandemic. Either way, they are just food.

Certainly, tuna have fed countless generations throughout human history. From the palm-fringed islands of the Pacific to the diverse nations of the Mediterranean, tuna have been part of the diet and part of the culture. But before they make it to the plate, they played a vital role in the functioning of the ocean ecosystem – because fish don’t just inhabit the ocean. They fuel it.

Read the full opinion piece at Seafood Source

Pressure builds for IOTC ahead of special session, with several groups calling for urgent action

March 5, 2021 — Many seafood supply chain players and industry stakeholders are calling on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) for reforms as concerns surrounding heavy fishing in the region reach a boiling point in advance of the commission’s next meeting, set to run from 8 to 12 March, 2021.

The Global Tuna Alliance, the Tuna Protection Alliance, and several seafood companies are urging the inter-governmental organization – which is responsible for the management of Indian Ocean tuna fisheries – to impose an overall 20 percent cut in regional yellowfin tuna catch compared to 2014 levels.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Concerns emerge over IOTC delay of yellowfin tuna conservation plan

February 8, 2021 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) will maintain the status quo for the current yellowfin tuna conservation measures, barely three months after the organization had scheduled an emergency meeting for March 2021 to review its conservation plan.

In November 2020, the IOTC said its March 2021 meeting would focus on emerging trends of overfishing of yellowfin tuna, which delayed the stock’s rebuilding plan. However, advice issued 29 January by the IOTC’s scientific committee called on IOTC member-states to maintain the status quo until a new stock assessment is completed, likely to occur later this year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IOTC publishes 2021 yellowfin tuna catch limits

January 8, 2021 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has published a new list of yellowfin tuna catch limit allocations for 2021.

A statement by IOTC Executive Secretary Christopher O’Brien said the commission is focused on the rebuilding of the Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna stock, hence the annual allocation of catch limits for affiliated members under the organization’s Resolution 19/01.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Decisive action on yellowfin stock rebuilding needed in new year, IPNLF says

December 22, 2020 — Urgent action is needed from members of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) before and during its special session meeting planned for March to discuss the rebuilding of the overfished Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna stock, according to the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF).

One of the world’s most economically important fishing area, spanning 70 million square kilometers, the Indian Ocean is responsible for up to 20 percent of the global production of tuna, IPNLF said. However, concerns have grown over the long-term sustainability of the Indian Ocean’s tuna stocks, particularly its yellowfin resource, which has been classified as overfished since 2015 and has been part of a rebuilding plan since 2016.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF Position Statement Outlines Top Asks for Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, Including More Robust Rebuilding Plan for Yellowfin Tuna

October 9, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) published its position statement in advance of the 24th Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), which will take place virtually November 2-6.

The impacts of COVID-19 have challenged regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in conducting their meetings in 2020. IOTC cancelled its in-person annual Commission and Working Party meetings, which are now taking place online.

Even under these historically unique, pandemic-caused circumstances, ISSF believes IOTC must press forward on collaborative discussions and take decisions to ensure the uninterrupted, sustainable management of tuna stocks and marine ecosystems under its purview. Several critical measures and issues that require immediate attention and action by IOTC this year into 2021 are detailed in ISSF’s statement.

As in 2019, given the serious risk of further declines in the status of the stock, ISSF’s highest priority for IOTC is that it adopts this year an effective rebuilding plan for yellowfin tuna aligned with recommendations from IOTC’s own Scientific Committee. If implemented effectively, this would imply a 15%-20% reduction from the 2017 yellowfin catch levels. The interim-rebuilding plan adopted last year in Resolution 19/01 did not fully incorporate the Committee’s yellowfin advice, and it allowed for growth in some fishery sectors. In addition, reported over-catches in contravention of the Resolution is further eroding its effectiveness.

“Yellowfin stock status in Indian Ocean fisheries remains a clear concern,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “To rebuild the stock, IOTC must adopt a measure in 2020 that fully incorporates the recommendations of its own Scientific Committee, ensures all gears and fleets harvesting yellowfin are included and addresses non-compliance with the interim rebuilding plan. For fisheries management, COVID-19 presents many obstacles, but the Commission is responsible for this critical resource and should take immediate action to conserve it.”

ISSF’s other top “asks” of IOTC for its upcoming meeting agenda are:

  • Urgently monitor and manage catches of skipjack to ensure catches in 2020/2021 do not exceed the limit set by the adopted Harvest Control Rule in Resolution 16/02
  • Conduct management strategy evaluation (MSE) for albacore, bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin tuna stocks, and adopt species-specific management procedures, particularly for yellowfin
  • Request the Scientific Committee provide science-based limits on FAD deployments and/or FAD sets; develop recommendations in 2021 and adopt, by 2022, FAD marking guidelines, including the requirement to mark both the buoy and the FAD structure
  • Develop and adopt minimum standards for electronic monitoring systems (EMS) and an e-reporting information system both for logbooks and observers for all gears in 2021 so that large-scale purse seine vessels — and all vessels engaged in at-sea transshipment, regardless of gear type — are required to have 100% observer coverage within five years

Read the full IOTC Position Statement on the ISSF website.

IOTC data indicates tuna still overfished

September 23, 2020 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has published its 2019 nominal catch data, indicating that multiple species of tuna are being overfished.

The IOTC data indicates that 16 percent more Indian Ocean skipjack was caught than provided by the commission’s harvest control rule. At the same time, the data shows the Indian Ocean yellowfin, that is already overfished, exceeded 100,000 metric tons (MT) on top of the quantity “required to rebuild the stock in two generations.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IOTC adopts 10 percent catch reduction for yellowfin tuna

June 25, 2019 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission adopted an overall catch reduction of around 10 percent on yellowfin tuna at its annual meeting in Hyderabad, India, last week.

The environmental non-governmental organization Blue Marine Foundation was one of several NGOs to criticize the move as not going far enough to prevent a collapse of yellowfin stocks in the Indian Ocean.

“By ignoring the advice of their own scientists, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission has once again demonstrated that it is one of the most dysfunctional [United Nations] institutions and desperately in need of reform. The member nations should be sharing the pain of catch reductions made necessary by their incompetent management, rather than avoiding it and making stock collapse more likely,” Blue Marine Foundation Executive Director Charles Clover said. “The [European Union] continues to help itself to a share of the catch that is against its own regulations and the U.N. Law of the Sea. Retailers now need to step up and ask questions about the adverse influence of processors such as Princes and John West and nations guilty of illegal and excessive fishing such as Spain.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

At IOTC meeting, calls made to save yellowfin tuna stocks from potential collapse

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.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF to IOTC: Listen to your scientists, take immediate steps to protect Yellowfin

June 13, 2019 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) published its position statement in advance of the 23rd Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)in Hyderabad, India, June 17-21.

ISSF’s highest priority item for IOTC is the adoption of an effective rebuilding plan for yellowfin tuna, one that gives full effect to the recommendations from IOTC’s Scientific Committee. In 2018, the Scientific Committee reported that catches of yellowfin tuna exceeded by 3% the management measures previously agreed by the Commission that called for reductions in catches; reductions that did not even meet the scientific advice.

“Fisheries managers must act to protect Indian Ocean yellowfin,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “The scientific evidence regarding the status of Indian Ocean yellowfin is well-documented and concerning, and the IOTC has the power to adopt management measures that will rebuild this stock. The IOTC must heed the advice of its Scientific Committee and adopt effective management measures to reverse the decline of this critical resource.”

For yellowfin tuna, a species that is subject to overfishing, an over-catch of 3% places further stress on this resource. According to ISSF, IOTC should adopt an effective rebuilding plan for yellowfin tuna that: gives full effect to the advice of the IOTC Scientific Committee and achieves a healthy spawning biomass for the species by 2024 with at least 50% probability.

ISSF also advocates that IOTC:

  1. Adopt species-specific harvest strategies as soon as possible, particularly for yellowfin tuna, and conduct a review of the limit reference points (LRPs) in Resolution 15/10 to allow for the adoption of harvest control rules by 2020.
  2. Urgently address data gaps in artisanal fisheries, especially for gillnets.
  3. Strengthen monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) measures, such as vessel monitoring systems (VMS) and the regional observer scheme (ROS), to support data collection, monitoring and the implementation of harvest strategies.
  4. Strengthen fish aggregating device (FAD) management, including of supply and tender vessels; ensure full implementation of non-entangling FADs; and support testing of biodegradable FADs.
  5. Amend Res. 11/04 to require 100% observer coverage on large-scale purse seine vessels; adopt the ROS Standards for national programs; and develop electronic monitoring/electronic reporting(EM/ER) standards so that EM can be used to ultimately achieve 100% observer coverage in purse seine and longline fisheries.
  6. Continue to strengthen the IOTC compliance assessment process.

Read the full IOTC Position Statement, available in English or French, on the ISSF website.