January 28, 2021 โ The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has approved a rollover of 2020โs total allowable catch (TAC) for western Atlantic bluefin tuna.
In response, non-governmental organizations including The Pew Charitable Trusts have warned the move will likely lead to overfishing of the stock.
January 14, 2021 โ Two years ago, a law banning the wasteful practice of tossing unwanted fish overboard came fully into effect in European waters. But a study reveals the law, intended to reduce overfishing, has led to the opposite: To allay industry concerns, regulators have significantly increased fishing quotas, while providing ever more exemptions that make the policy even more difficult to enforce.
The findings show โhow the good intentions of the reformed common fisheries policy of Europe were undermined,โ says Rainer Froese, a fisheries scientist with GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, who was not involved in the study.
The European Parliament approved the discard ban in 2013 after a campaign by celebrity chefs and environmental groups who were outraged by the practice of discarding fish. Sometimes lower value species such as plaice were chucked back into the waterโusually dyingโbecause captains wanted to save room in their holds for more profitable catch like sole. Regulators also required them to discard immature fish, even though the fish were unlikely to survive and reproduce.
By requiring ships to bring the entire catch back to port, unwanted or not, lawmakers meant to encourage selective fishing. Captains could avoid places or seasons when undesired species congregate, or could use modified fishing gear that captures fewer unwanted fish. But mastering these tactics and installing new gear takes time, so fisheries officials offered a handout to industry by increasing the quota of fish that vessels could bring back to port. Because unmarketable fish had to be kept on board, the logic went, captains could bring back more fish in total and still have the same amount of fish to sell.
But discarding apparently continues in many fisheries, in violation of the ban, according to reports by the European Commission and European Fisheries Control Agency. โThe fact that thereโs still discarding going on over the horizon is a big risk,โ says Andrew Clayton of Pew Charitable Trusts, which advocates to end overfishing in northwest Europe. Clayton and others see a threat to sustainability, because if illegal discards are continuing and vessels are bringing back more to sell in portโthanks to increased quotasโthen too many fish are being killed.
January 5, 2021 โ President Donald Trump has vetoed a bill that would have phased out large-mesh drift gillnets in federal waters. In his veto message, he suggested that the bill would increase reliance on imported seafood, worsen the trade deficit and โnot achieve its purported conservation benefits.โ
Driftnets are prone to a high rate of bycatch, including protected marine mammals and sea turtles. In the U.S., the nets are used exclusively by about 20 vessels to catch swordfish and sharks in federal waters off the coast of California. Swordfish is the primary target species, but it only accounts for about one out of eight animals caught by the nets, according to the nonprofit Turtle Island Restoration Network. An estimated two thirds of all animals caught are discarded, including about 60 whales and dolphins per year โ more cetacean mortality than all other West Coast fisheries combined.
The Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act, sponsored by Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), would have phased out driftnets and helped affected fishermen to acquire deep-set buoy gear. Deep-set buoy fishing involves deploying a trio of buoys connected to one extra-long line, which hangs down to 1,000 feet of water depth โ the region where swordfish spend the daylight hours. By fishing deep and frequently tending their buoys, fishermen can catch high-quality swordfish without landing shallow-swimming sea turtles and dolphins, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
December 14, 2020 โ The pandemic has seriously impacted many who fish or work on the water for a living. With restaurants and the food service industry taking a big hit, the demand for various seafood products, including oysters, has been severely curtailed. As a result, many of the oysters raised by oyster farmers have grown to a size that is considered too large for sale and general consumption.
The good news is that a lot of those oysters, which can live well over 10 years, will find a new home, back in the water and not served on a restaurant plate, thanks to a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Last month, the organizations combined forces to launch the Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration program, which will extend $2 million in payments to oyster farmers to support more than 100 shellfish companies and help preserve over 200 jobs in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and Washington State. Simultaneously, over five million of the older oysters will be deployed to rebuild 27 acres of imperiled native shellfish reefs across 20 restoration sites.
On Long Island, the program will begin to buy oysters from local farmers to use in nearby oyster reef restoration sites, including ones in Shinnecock and Moriches Bays. Over the next few weeks, several Long Island oyster growers will deliver 350,000 oysters so that they can be counted, cleaned, recorded, and, most importantly, replanted for restoration.
December 8, 2020 โ The international rules and regulations covering the catch of tuna in the Eastern Pacific are about to go away. On January 1, the fisheries for bigeye, skipjack and yellowfin tuna will be wide open and ungoverned because the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission concluded its annual meeting without an agreement, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Guillermo Moran, the headof Ecuadorian fishing industry group Tuna Conservation Group (Tunacons), told Undercurrent News that the only nation standing in the way of the 2021 regulatory scheme was Colombia. IATTC operates by consensus, and without 100 percent agreement, the group cannot issue regulations.
โFor the first time in its 70-year history, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission has completely withdrawn from management of tropical tunas. To remedy this abdication of responsibility, IATTC and its member governments should immediately schedule a special session to set rules for 2021. Unless IATTC takes this emergency action, starting Jan. 1 there will be . . . no restrictions on what gear can be used; and no consequences for the resulting harm that may occur,โ said Amanda Nickson, director of international fisheries for The Pew Charitable Trusts. โWhen meeting participants canโt reach consensus, the default should never be to simply suspend management of species . . . The need to responsibly manage fish stocks worldwide calls out for significant reforms in the predictability and stability of decision-making.โ
December 2, 2020 โ A final round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization on cutting fisheries subsidies opened on Tuesday with some delegates seeing little hope for a deal by a 2020 deadline despite intensifying negotiations.
World leaders committed in 2015 to a series of U.N. targets and one of them mandates the Geneva-based trade watchdog to strike a deal on ending government subsidies worth billions of dollars that contribute to over-fishing.
However, three delegates involved in the closed-door talks said they were not expecting a deal by the end of the year, and one trade source said that discussions on a key area were effectively deadlocked.
โI would be surprised if there is a deal,โ said a delegate.
Switzerlandโs ambassador Didier Chambovey, who is facilitating talks, told members last week that positions on potential exemptions for developing countries were โentrenchedโ.
India is one of several countries seeking significant carve-outs, sources say.
October 21, 2020 โ The Nature Conservancy announced 21 October it plans to help struggling oyster farmers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic by purchasing five million surplus oysters.
The oysters, according to a release from The Nature Conservancy, will be used in nearby oyster restoration projects in order to rebuild 27 acres of โimperiled native shellfish reefs.โ Partnering on the initiative are The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the action is being coordinated with efforts taken by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
October 20, 2020 โ As a child, Rodolfo Werner used to dream about Antarctica โ that vast, white continent with no fixed human population, and surrounded by icy seas teeming with krill, whales and penguins. In 2006, his dream became a reality when he started working in Antarctic marine conservation and traveled to the continent as a guide. Since then, heโs visited Antarctica more than 20 times, and the place never ceases to amaze him, he said.
โAntarctica catches you when youโre there,โ Werner, now a senior adviser at Pew Charitable Trusts and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), told Mongabay. โIt changes your way of seeing nature because โฆ [it] is so huge and [has] so much wildlife, and it really touches your soul. Every person that goes to Antarctica, when they come back, they are different.โ
While Antarcticaโs land mass is currently protected through the Antarctic Treaty (although this expires in 2048), vast swaths of its marine region are open to industrial fishing for species such as Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides). Conservationists say these fishing activities are endangering the Southern Oceanโs delicate marine ecosystem that hosts more than 15,000 species, and a region that plays a vital role in regulating the worldโs climate.
A coalition of conservation groups, including Pew, ASOC, SeaLegacy, Antarctica2020, Ocean Unite, and Only One, are working together to advocate for the formation of three marine protected areas (MPAs) in East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Weddell Sea. Together, these areas would protect about 4 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles), encompassing 1% of the worldโs ocean. Thatโs two and a half times the size of Alaska, and nearly three times the size of Papahฤnaumokuฤkea Marine National Monument in Hawaiสปi, which is currently one of the worldโs largest marine sanctuaries.
October 7, 2020 โ Tuna is holding steady as a $40 billion-a-year business, but commercial fisheries worldwide are hauling in bigger catches of dwindling value, threatening the long-term survival of some species, according to a new report.
โFisheries caught 500,000 more metric tons in 2018 than in 2012, but were paid $500 million less in dock value,โ study co-author Grantly Galland, an officer with The Pew Charitable Trustsโ international fisheries group, told AFP.
Unless governments that regulate the industry through regional management bodies adopt long-term strategies, everything from supermarket tuna to $100-a-portion sashimi could wind up in short supply, the report warned.
Crashing populations of skipjack, bigeye, yellowfin and bluefin would also jeopardise livelihoods and disrupt ecosystems in which the top-level predators play a critical role.
September 14, 2020 โ The recent easing of tuna protections in the Gulf of Mexico and fishing restrictions elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean may be contributing to rapid and widespread declines for one of the most highly prized but critically threatened tuna populations.
A new report by an international tuna conservation commission indicates the stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna has plummeted to just 13% of its levels 70 years ago. The fish, one of the most valuable seafoods in the world, had shown signs of recovery in recent years, thanks partly to robust protections the U.S. enacted five years ago in the Gulf โ the only major spawning area for western Atlantic bluefin. Those protections were eased this year by President Donald Trumpโs administration.
โThese are big concerns,โ said Grantly Galland, a marine biologist with Pew Charitable Trusts. โWe had early signals of recovery but raising the fishing quota and now getting rid of the protections in the Gulf of Mexico means the western population of bluefin is under threat again.โ
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