Posted
on 07 December 2009 - Cambridge, UK — Failure
by the Western Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission (WCPFC) to manage fish stocks
properly is contributing to the reduction
of Bigeye tuna and other fish.
WWF and TRAFFIC, the
wildlife trade monitoring network, said
today that the regional fisheries management
organization must address these flaws when
they meet this week in Tahiti.
“TRAFFIC and WWF are
particularly concerned that the efforts
made by WCPFC to reduce fishing effort to
try and protect Bigeye tuna stocks in the
Pacific have failed according to the Commission’s
Scientific Committee,” said Glenn Sant,
TRAFFIC’s Global Marine Programme Leader.
“Tuna Commissions need
to listen to the advice of their Scientific
Committees.
“It is of paramount
importance that effective steps are taken
to reduce the mortality of Bigeye Tuna immediately
by 43 percent,” Sant said.
Global stocks of several
tuna species are heavily overfished, with
populations of Atlantic and Southern Bluefin
tuna fished down to dangerously low levels.
The Southern Bluefin tuna spawning stock
is as low as 3 percent of its original size.
More recently, concerns have been expressed
over stocks of Yellow-fin tuna in the Indian
Ocean.
“We live in desperate
times as far as the health of our global
tuna stocks are concerned,” said Sant.
In 2007, TRAFFIC and
WWF published With An Eye to the Future:
Addressing Failures in the Global Management
of Bigeye Tuna, a report showing that Bigeye
Tuna stocks around the world require better
management.
“Last year, WCPFC tried
to address overfishing of Bigeye Tuna in
the Pacific, but their measures haven’t
worked. Now there is no time to lose if
Bigeye Tuna is not to join its cousins on
the brink of fished-out over-exploitation.”
Conservation of shark
species caught during tuna fishing activities
is another area of concern TRAFFIC and WWF
have flagged for the meeting.
The organizations say
a requirement that the landing of sharks
should be mandatory, with fins naturally
attached and all products tagged for traceability
until their final destination.
