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sustainability Giant of the Atlantic 18 ROUTES 2 2007 The bluefin tuna is one of the most magnificent fish living in the world’s oceans. However, it’s also considered to make the world’s finest sushi, which has contributed to it being on a path to extinction. A catastrophe that WWF, the global conservation organisation, supported by WWL, is now doing everything in its power to prevent. T he Atlantic bluefin is the tuna species to be most negatively affected by last century’s large-scale industrial fishing. The number of adult fish currently amounts to only 10 percent of the 1975 level which, even then, was considerably depleted. A large proportion of Atlantic bluefin tuna is exported to Asia, but increasingly also to northern Europe, as the sushi trend expands. Measuring up to 4 metres in length and weighing 680 kg, bluefin tuna is the most valuable of all the fish in the sea, with a record specimen having been sold at the Tokyo fish market for USD 173,600! In the Mediterranean, where fishing of the Atlantic bluefin tuna has been most widespread, the species may disappear entirely as early as this year. Something that would be disastrous for “Removing a top predator like the tuna can lead to a domino effect, where other species further down the chain are affected.” WORdS SuSanna w. ahlForS pHOTO GettY iMaGeS biodiversity, but also for the ecological balance, says WWF marine biologist Sergi Tudela: “Removing a top predator like the tuna can lead to a domino effect, where other species further down the chain are affected.” In the Mediterranean, this may mean a sharp increase in the number of squid which, in its turn, would result in a reduction in the sardine population. “What we’re witnessing now is the same situation as with the cod stocks off Newfoundland. Since they collapsed in the 1990s, they have not been able to recover,” Tudela adds. So what can be done in order to prevent a collapse? In November last year, ICCAT, the main body for managing Atlantic bluefin tuna, held a meeting in Croatia. At that meeting, ICCAT’s own scientists proposed a reduction in the catch quota from 32,000 to 15,000 metric tonnes per year in the Mediterranean as a necessary measure to save the species from almost certain extinction. But the proposal that was finally agreed upon was that put forward by the EU delegation, which involves a reduction merely from 32,000 to 29,500 tonnes in 2007, along with a ban on fishing only from July to the end of the year. This, despite the fact that up to 60 percent of all the Atlantic bluefin caught in the Mediterranean is fished while spawning in June. “The EU calls this a recovery plan, but we call it a collapse plan”, says Tudela. the conSiderable commercial value of the catch means that governments are subjected to enormous pressure from the fishing industry. This reduces the political will for a sustainable management system on the part of states such as France, Spain and Italy. Together, these three countries are responsible for more than 50 percent of the total legal catch of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. In order to prevent an immediate collapse of the species, WWF has asked all states with an allocation for fishing not to accept ICCAT’s proposal of a quota of 29,500 tonnes, but to reduce their catch quota by half. So far, only Norway has responded to WWF’s request. “As an immediate action, we are asking retailers, especially supermarkets in Europe, to support our call to cut bluefin tuna quotas by half in the Mediterranean, and more than a dozen retailers have joined so far.” The fate of the Atlantic bluefin tuna is also a terrifying indication of what could happen to all tuna species, according to Tudela. “We have to start looking at fish as more than just food. If we could see the tuna migration that passes through the Straits of Gibraltar every year, it would be as thrilling as watching the lions in the African Serengeti!”
close to extinction What can you do? When you are at your sushi restaurant, at your fishmonger’s or in the store: Ask where the bluefin tuna comes from. If it is from the Mediterranean, WWF recommends not to buy it, unless the seller can prove that it has been sustainably fished. Buying tuna in tins for salads and sandwiches is, on the other hand, not a problem for bluefin tuna, as it almost never ends up in a tin. The best choice here is yellowfin tuna from the East Pacific Ocean. For more information visit www.panda.org/tuna Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics is the sole sponsor of WWF’s High Seas Conservation Programme, supporting WWF in its work to improve high seas conservation and governance. ROUTES 2 2007 19
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working life - Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics

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