Bluefin Witness - Issue 2

Witnessing the decline of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean

In this second edition of Bluefin Witness, Caroline Bennett - owner of thriving sushi bar chain Moshi Moshi - talks to WWF about why she has banned bluefin tuna from all her menus.

At the same time bluefin expert José Luis Cort explains his fears of what the Norway tuna collapse precedent implies for the fate of the Mediterranean stock.

These Bluefin Witnesses are adding their voice to a growing number who are concerned that time is running out to save tuna in the Mediterranean from collapse.

Emptying the seas

Even as the legal bluefin season for industrial fishing vessels like purse seiners in the Mediterranean ended, spotter planes - which support these fleets - were still to be seen searching for fish as boats continued to ply the waters for a catch.

Enjoying a quota already well in excess of what scientists recommended as ‘safe’ for the imperilled stock, the fleets continued driving the once abundant population ever closer to the brink of collapse.

No one knows what the outcome will be but lessons from history paint a stark picture. Just a few hundred kilometres further along the tuna’s migration route, the seas - once teeming with tuna at this time of year - are all but empty of the species.

After years of overexploitation of the eastern Atlantic stock all round its distribution area, bluefin tuna disappeared from the waters around Norway and have never recovered.

Lessons from the past

Leading ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) scientist and bluefin tuna expert José Luis Cort believes that the decline of the stock in the Mediterranean is greatly influential in the loss of the Atlantic fisheries such as traps and the Norwegian and North Sea fisheries.

“The key point to consider in relation to the collapse of the Norwegian and other Atlantic fisheries is their failure to recover. This highlights the interdependence of the Atlantic and Mediterranean fisheries.”

“It is all the same bluefin tuna population; the Mediterranean is the nursery for the stock, a proportion of which would then move to the Atlantic and is recruited to the fisheries.”

José Luis attributes the lack of Northern migration to the consistent fishing for juvenile tuna over the last thirty to forty years.

“The future for the Atlantic bluefin tuna fisheries is not optimistic because of the high fishing mortality rate of juveniles in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is the main place to focus recovery efforts - it is the spawning ground, the nursery which will replenish the population.”

José Luis and his fellow scientists advising ICCAT have recommended drastic cuts and measures to support recovery.

But at ICCAT’s inter-sessional meeting in July, Contracting Parties agreed to push for a freeze in fleet capacity at current levels - rather than recommending a much-needed capacity reduction for the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fleet. This leaves the stock vulnerable to even more overfishing.

License to kill?

The fleet capacity is an estimated 50,000 tonnes in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic – well over allowable catch levels, and more than three times those recommended by ICCAT scientists.

Effectively it is a license for illegal fishing with capacity far outstripping allowable quota.

As ICCAT continues to fail in its mandated duty to manage the fishery, it falls to others to take whatever action they can to help preserve the stock.

Bluefin tuna is increasingly being removed from the menu by restaurateurs concerned at the future for the species. One of the first to make this move was Caroline Bennett, founder of Moshi Moshi, the UK’s first conveyer belt sushi restaurant. She spoke to WWF about why bluefin had to come off the menu.

Besides calling for a real recovery plan for the species, WWF is also working with other organisations in Spain to call on the fisheries administrations of the European Union, Spain and the Balearic islands to set up a protected area in the archipelago – traditionally the most important breeding ground for bluefin tuna in the world – as another attempt to protect the species from severe overfishing.

Such a sanctuary would not remove the need for the far tighter quotas and controls demanded by scientists for the wider Mediterranean fishing area but would ensure that the tuna have one refuge for undisturbed breeding.

Whether or not such moves are already too late remains to be seen.