WWF - Publications on or about the conservation of the marine environment

Banking on Cod

2009-06-16

Bycatch Factsheet

2009-06-15

Dolphins, marine turtles, seals, seabirds, sharks, juvenile fish, fish with little commercial value, corals … billions of unwanted animals are caught every year by fishing boats then discarded dead or dying back into the ocean.

Known as bycatch, the capture of these so-called “non-target species” is a major fisheries management problem, wasting time and hundreds of millions of dollars in damaged gear and inefficient fishing methods. It’s also one of the greatest threats to the marine environment, wasting a valuable natural resource and causing dramatic declines in populations of many marine species. As such, WWF is working on bycatch as a priority conservation issue.

WWF’s Bycatch Initative is working to trial new fishing technologies, ensure policy frameworks support bycatch reduction, and identify effective incentives for fishermen to reduce bycatch. The Programme works with academia, the fishing industry, other conservation organizations, and governments to stimulate new solutions and promote them worldwide. The work particularly focuses on priority species, fisheries, and fish populations affected by bycatch.

Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch

2009-04-15

Abstract

Unselective fishing catches non-target organisms as ‘bycatch’—an issue of critical ocean conservation and resource management concern. However, the situation is confused because perceptions of target and non target catch vary widely, impeding efforts to estimate bycatch globally. To remedy this, the term needs to be redefined as a consistent definition that establishes what should be considered bycatch. A new definition is put forward as: ‘bycatch is catch that is either unused or unmanaged’. Applying this definition to global marine fisheries data conservatively indicates that bycatch represents 40.4 percent of global marine catches, exposing systemic gaps in fisheries policy and management.

Reference: DAVIES RWD, et al. Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch. Marine Policy (2009), doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2009.01.003.

Safe Conduct? Twelve years fishing under the UN Code

2009-02-05

The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing (CCRF, ‘the Code’) was produced in 1995. During the period of its ten year anniversary, WWF and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Fisheries Centre initiated this project to assess its implementation. Applying a consistent assessment protocol to data for 2003-2005, UBC analysed 53 countries, representing over 95% of the world’s wild fisheries catch. This work offers a snapshot of where improvements might be necessary and against which new initiatives can be judged.

The Code was an important contribution to fisheries management at the time, and in fact, the Marine Stewardship Council and other initiatives to improve fisheries management are based upon it. For example, Denmark has adopted rights-based management, countries in the Eastern Pacific have initiatives to reduce bycatch, and Indonesia and the Philippines acknowledged overfishing and more recently, began championing the new Coral Triangle Initiative. However, the overall picture of compliance 12 years after the Code was published, presented in the following pages, is poor for the health of fisheries, fishing communities and the ecosystems they depend upon.

The best and worst countries in terms of compliance with the Code are identified; each country’s intentions, as revealed by its laws, legislation and practices, is distinguished from the effectiveness of its management measures. Compliance with the Code in specific measures is evaluated, including the use of reference points; the precautionary approach; fishery impacts on biodiversity, discards and bycatch; implementation of marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and no-take areas; consideration given to small-scale fisheries, coastal communities and aboriginal peoples; the control of excess fishing capacity; the extent and control of illegal fishing; and the use of flags of convenience to circumvent regulations.

As is evident from the failure of 90% of countries to address overcapacity, the current ‘fisheries management system’ has institutionalised overfishing through the low political priority given to fisheries and a lack of accountability for sustainability across the spectrum of players. Fishing is often far away, out of sight from the capitals where politicians and stakeholders make decisions that affect ocean health. It is only now with increasing scrutiny by consumers, the supply chain and retailers that the few champions of seafood security can begin to inhibit illegal and irresponsible fishing or highlight simply poor management performance.

This analysis of countries’ implementation of the Code was also used as a measure of their ability to ‘do ecosystem-based management’ (EBM), an approach to marine fisheries thought to have the elements needed to succeed where other approaches have failed. WWF has a comprehensive policy framework for EBM of fisheries and has also published case studies of EBM ‘in action’, showing that it is possible to do things differently and reverse the trajectory. This report and the ‘open protocol’ country case studies provide important baselines from which to measure future improvements in management. The country status reports are updated as new information comes to light: twelve countries have been updated to date.

Politically, it is time to link responsible fisheries with food security, legal fisheries with secure maritime borders and sustainable fisheries with stable coastal communities. Fishers and coastal communities can and should be the eyes and ears of a responsible society ‘out there on the water’ rather than an embarrassing excuse for shameful decline and a veil for criminal activity. WWF and the Fisheries Centre at UBC hope this analysis helps countries to take stock objectively of their current fisheries management situation, to seek the resources, guidance and support to design and implement improved approaches and to improve the profitability of their fisheries, the viability of their fishing communities and the health of the marine ecosystems they rely upon. This analysis clearly highlights the connection between good governance and responsible fisheries and raises the question of whether it may be time to make the implementation of the Code mandatory.

A guide to reduce and eliminate fish discards

2008-12-18

Discards in the European fleet are essentially a symptom of a poor management system that has failed to address overcapacity, to impose the use of more selective fishing gears and to set limits based on real catches. WWF wants to see an end to the wasteful practice of discarding and we ask for a new policy that will deliver a systematic reduction of current discard levels, prioritising most problematic fisheries. There are solutions to the problem of discards , many of which have already achieved positive results in Norwegian fisheries . Here WWF outlines some of these solutions.

European Fisheries Quota 2009: How can Europe tackle the problem of discard?

2008-12-09

This year the negotiations between the European Union and Norway to decide on North Sea stocks are particularly debated. The discards issue has shaped the negotiation, which failed to come up to an agreement after the first two rounds of talks in November. The discussion has moved now to Olso for a third round of talks. The result of the agreement will be ratified by the Fisheries Council, 17-19 December in Brussels.

Please see attached WWF's briefing on the issues under discussion, as well as WWF recommendations for the main 2009 fisheries quotas.

Establishing Marine Protected Area Networks - Making It Happen

2008-10-09

Protecting Ocean Ecosystems - The Challenge Ahead

Regardless of where we live, all of us depend upon healthy ocean ecosystems: either as a source of food o revenue, or as a key shaper and regulator of climate and weather.

This dependency and the need to embrace sustainable development led nations of the world to agree to a series of high-level political commitments for marine conservation and marine protected areas. The World Summit on Sustainable Development, the 5th World Parks Congress, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the G8 Group of Nations have all called for the establishment of a global system of marine protected area (MPA) networks by the year 2012. In line with this commitment are strategies of marine conservation organizations and some governments to increase the development, use and effective management of MPAs as a tool for marine conservation across the oceans.

The challenge, however, is to turn such commitments into practical and effective reality - part of a broader management approach to our oceans and seas to benefit the environment and people. It is particularly important at a time when the impacts from climate change and from ocean acidification are major issues that will shape our future. The Second Millennium Assessment also tells us that wildlife and habitat losses continue. Clearly, the need for action to conserve and restore marine ecosystems, and thereby help sustain livelihoods, has never been greater.

We all have a common responsibility to ensure that future generations enjoy such benefits of healthy marine ecosystems and abundant marine life; this is, after all, the cornerstone of what sustainable development means. This publication, which has pooled global experience on MPAs, is intended to be useful to countrie and their various organizations in helping them build effective networks of MPAs. Not only does it provide a wealth of real-life examples from around the globe, it outlines the steps necessary to turn political ambitions into reality.

This guide represents a global first in capturing the emerging experience on building MPA networks. We are grateful to all those who have worked so hard to bring it to fruition over the last 5 years. We hope you will find the advice it contains will support improved protection and management of our marine areas, and ensure that future generations benefit as we have done from the ocean’s diversity of species, the opportunities it provides, and its splendor and natural wonders.

Lifting the lid on Italy’s bluefin tuna fishery

2008-10-07

This WWF-commissioned report, researched and compiled by independent consultancy ATRT, contains the first in-depth analysis of the role of Italy in the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean. Its findings confirm the widely held view that Italy is among the main culprits in the region for overfishing and violation of the fishery’s management rules.

In April 2008 WWF released a report quantifying for the first time the fishing overcapacity of industrial fleets targeting the stock in the Mediterranean . That study identified Italy as the leader in overcapacity among EU member states, with an estimated catch capacity for the industrial purse seine fleet twice the national quota allocated to it. The study pointed to the likely underreporting of real catches in the last years, coupled with a systematic violation of international management rules and the overshoot of national quotas.

To ascertain the performance of the Italian bluefin tuna fishing industry during the crucial 2008 fishing season, the authors of this report have combined a thorough analysis of trade information with extensive field work. The latter has included the monitoring of Italy’s fleet at sea in real time, as well as the field analysis (through aerial surveys) of bluefin tuna biomass caged in every farm based in Italy, Croatia and Malta. This colossal undertaking has generated the most comprehensive picture yet of the role played by Italian interests in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery, including the extent of compliance (or lack thereof) with international management rules agreed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT, the body tasked with sustainably managing the fishery) and the EU.

This WWF study is all the more relevant now, when the Italian government holds the view that the EU’s decision to close the purse seine fishery two weeks early (15 June 2008) resulted in the Italian purse seine fleet falling short of fulfilling its quota for the year (which even led Italian interests to the extreme step of taking the European Commission to the European Court of Justice).

The current report reviews data for 2007 and demonstrates that Italy’s overshoot of the bluefin tuna national quota for 2007 amounted to a minimum of 1,653 tonnes, more than five times as much as the officially recognized overshoot of 327 tonnes. It also highlights the serious inconsistencies in the register of the fleet targeting bluefin tuna, with a broad mismatch of records between ICCAT, the EU and national fleet registers. Up to 163 purse seine vessels would have been active in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery in 2008, according to the crosscheck between the relevant official registers. A total of 15 purse seine flotillas, or fishing groupings, were identified to be operating during the 2008 fishing season, including in partnership with other Libyan, Turkish and possibly Algerian vessels. The latter were identified as having been involved in an illegal operation of paper-quota transfer between Algerian and Turkish vessels during the 2008 fishing season.

The report includes extensive field information proving that Italian airports have played a key role during 2008 as a hub for illegal aerial spotting activities in central Mediterranean waters. Additionally, Italian spotter planes have operated (with others, such as US, French and Swiss) in support of the illegal activities of Italian purse seiners.

A total of 5 farms based in Italy were identified as active in 2008, containing an estimated biomass of 2,410 tonnes of live tuna (equivalent to an estimated weight at input of 2,241 tonnes). This tuna was caught exclusively by Italian purse seiners operating during the 2008 fishing season.

Additionally, a conservative 1,321 tonnes of bluefin tuna is estimated to have been caught by Italian purse seiners in the early spring fishery inside the Adriatic Sea, including an estimate of 853 tonnes that would have been caged in Croatian farms.

Finally, a further 1,159 tonnes of tuna are estimated to have been caught by Italian seiners and transferred to farms in Malta and Tunisia during 2008.

The estimate of the total bluefin tuna catch by Italian fleets during the 2008 fishing season contained in WWF’s report thus amounts to 4,887 tonnes at the very minimum. This highly conservative figure does not account for any estimate of catches by long line fleets outside of the Adriatic Sea, due to the impossibility of obtaining this information, and yet, entails a minimum quota overshoot by Italy of 724 tonnes. One wonders what the final catch of Italy’s bluefin tuna fleet might have been, had the EU not closed the purse seine fishery 15 days earlier than initially scheduled this year. Additionally, the report highlights that several relevant fishing ports for bluefin tuna in Italy, such as Pozzuoli, Vibo Valentia, Portopalo and Cetraro, are duly registered with ICCAT as landing ports for the species, but do not report any single bluefin tuna.

In WWF’s opinion, the disturbing findings of this report (concerning a significant EU member state) reinforce the conclusions contained in the recent independent verdict on ICCAT’s performance elaborated by an international panel of experts , released in September 2008. The report commissioned by ICCAT describes mismanagement in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery as an “international disgrace” and recommends that ICCAT immediately suspend fishing – until conditions for sustainable fisheries management exist.

WWF continues to advocate a moratorium of the fishery – and in parallel encourages retailers, chefs, restaurants and consumers to join the growing boycott of the species – until Mediterranean bluefin tuna has been pulled safely back from the brink.

The value of our oceans

2008-10-01

People love the oceans. Millions of tourists flock to the world’s beaches, and whale and turtle watching, snorkelling and diving leave people in amazement of the beauties of marine life. Zoos and public aquaria, TV documentaries and even big screen cinema conveniently bring the experience of the marine world to our homes. And there, we enjoy the variety, fine taste and healthiness of seafood. The oceans give a lot – but we have not been very thankful.

The marine environment is in a dire state. Fish stocks, particularly those of greater economic value, are under heavy pressure from overfishing. Destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling and dynamite fishing destroy the very coral reefs that are home to the fish. Coastal development claims beaches where turtles were born and to which they can no longer return to lay their eggs. Mangrove forests are cleared to make way for shrimp farms.

And climate change and ocean acidification may prove to be the hardest challenges for our oceans’ species, habitats and long established food webs. And although the problems are known, solutions have been found and promoted extensively, the world is still a far cry from halting the loss of bio diversity.

With this report we want to take an economic angle in shedding light on the values we receive from the oceans and the life therein, but which we usually take for granted. The marine environment, its habitats and species have shaped and are still shaping our world, our culture and many people’s daily lives. We want to show what the loss of healthy oceans will mean to our economies and individual people’s incomes and livelihoods. We want to show what we lose if we don’t change.

Bismarck Solomon Seas Ecoregion: Fact Sheet

2008-07-10

Real and Present Danger: Flag State Failure and Maritime Security and Safety

2008-06-26

The murky system of registering vessels to countries offering flags of convenience if fuelling pirate fishing in the world's oceans and risking potentially catastrophic security breaches.
This report, published by WWF and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), exposes the failure of a number of flag States to ensure that the vessels they flag abide to international regulations.

Squaring the diamond mesh

2008-05-14

A new report from WWF encourages the switch from the unselective diamond-mesh nets currently used by bottom-trawlers in the Mediterranean to more selective square-mesh nets, sooner than the obligatory deadline of 2010.

European legislation (EU Council Regulation 1967/2006) stipulates that by 2010 all Mediterranean trawlers are obliged to implement the square-mesh codend, but WWF is advocating that these changes should be carried out as soon as possible, to immediately reduce the detrimental impact of trawl fishing in the region.

The WWF report, ‘Squaring the diamond mesh – how square-mesh trawl nets will benefit fish and fishermen in the Mediterranean’, is based on new ecosystem-based management analyses that use computer models to assess the effects of square-mesh nets on marine ecosystems and fishing fleets.

Results show that square-mesh nets will make trawling more selective – meaning the capture of less immature juveniles and non-target species, and reducing discards – and thus allowing the Mediterranean's fragile marine life, damaged by years of indiscriminate trawling, to begin recovery.

The proposed square mesh nets are also easy to phase in and do not reduce catches of most target species – indeed, yield may even increase in the long term.

“WWF’s new report shows that squaring the diamond mesh on Mediterranean trawlers will bring marked benefits to both fish and fishermen. What's not to like?”, comments Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.

WWF also advocates that further management measures, like one-day-a-week closures and a reduction in fishing capacity, are needed in parallel to the mesh change for a meaningful recovery of severely depleted stocks.

In the long term, these adaptations will make for much more sustainable fisheries in the Mediterranean – good news for fishermen and good news for fish.

A 6-page summary of the WWF report ‘Squaring the diamond mesh – how square-mesh trawl nets will benefit fish and fishermen in the Mediterranean’ is available in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Greek and will be distributed at European fishing ports and to decision-makers and other stakeholders across the Mediterranean this summer.

For further information, contact Gemma Parkes at WWF Mediterranean on gparkes@wwfmedpo.org or +39 06 844 97 224.

Small Boats, Big Problems

2008-05-05

Illegal fishing in Arctic waters

2008-04-16

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a global concern, costing nations upwards of €10 billion (US$15.5 billion) annually. Few places are of such great concern as the Arctic, home to some of the most outstanding marine ecosystems and most productive fisheries in the world. Indeed, between them the Barents Sea cod fishery and the Russian Far Eastern pollock fishery alone account for between 20 and 25% of the global catch of whitefish.

Recent years have seen significant progress in reducing - though by no means eliminating - IUU fishing in the Barents Sea. A new WWF report, Illegal Fishing in Arctic Waters, finds, however, that it remains a concern in the western Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East. Moreover, globalization of the fishing industry has resulted not only in new markets and new governance structures, but also in new challenges and obstacles to combating the truly international criminal activity that IUU fishing has become.

Oceans, Coasts & People

2008-03-20

With an estimated 60 per cent of the world’s population living within 60 km of a coast, coastal areas are the most densely populated regions on Earth. In 2000, there were an estimated 261 million rural coastal dwellers, living on the 2 per cent of the world’s land area lying between sea level and the 10 metre contour – and it is widely acknowledged that the prevailing direction of human migration is towards the coast.

Coastal areas are among the most productive and biologically rich areas on Earth, home to over 90 per cent of all marine species. Indeed, most of the marine resources utilized by people come from coastal regions. Coastal ecosystems additionally provide a range of services, such as storm protection, that benefit people around the world.

Coastal regions clearly have a vital role to play in food and income security and poverty alleviation in developing coastal and island countries, and hence are important to achieving human development goals. However, the links between a healthy marine environment, coastal communities, and sustainable development remain poorly understood or ignored. As a result, development strategies, policies, and programmes often neglect the importance of natural coastal and marine resources for meeting long-term sustainable development goals, and frequently even have conflicting policy goals between development and conservation.

WWF and its partners are working at the international, regional, national, and local levels to help ensure that environmental issues are recognized and integrated into development plans, and that policy conflicts are resolved in favour of sustainability. We have a wealth of experience that demonstrates concrete development gains following marine conservation efforts that promote responsible use of the natural resource base – not only economically, but also in human development aims such as improving health and empowering women.

This “Oceans, Coasts & People” series of fact sheets highlights the links between a healthy marine environment and sustained economic development, and shows how marine conservation can support, deliver on, and drive development goals. We urge all those working to achieve development goals to properly integrate environmental sustainability into development strategies, policies, and programmes.

The Dutch Case; A Network of Marine Protected Areas

2008-03-20

In order to protect biodiversity in the North Sea, an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas is needed. This report shows which areas should be protected within the network and discusses the situation for the Netherlands with regard to the opportunities and obstacles. The report also shows the lessons we can learn from international experience.

Race for the last bluefin: Capacity of the purse seine fleet targeting bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean

2008-03-12

The results are disturbing, and make a compelling case for urgent reduction in the capacity of these industrial vessels – while there are still tuna to be saved in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery has been exposed to rampant overfishing inside the entire ICCAT Convention Zone, namely the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, particularly during the past decade (1996 to 2007). This has resulted, inter alia, from poorly managed Total Allowable Catches (TAC) by ICCAT (with systematic upward adjustment of quotas based on false claims of undercatches); intentional under-reporting of BFT catches by ICCAT Contracting Parties; and an uncontrolled increase in fishing capacity. Overfishing of the largest scale, however, has occurred inside the Mediterranean Sea, and this has been almost completely attributable to the activity of purse seine fishing fleets, fuelled by the ever-increasing demand for live fish for fattening in Mediterranean tuna farms.

Purse-seiners in the Mediterranean Sea accounted for 50 per cent of all the BFT catches within the entire ICCAT Convention Zone during the period of 1996-2006, a figure which rose to almost 60 per cent when considering 2005 and 2006 catches alone. This huge proportion of catches has been a result of an ever-expanding fleet size, as well as an immense increase in fleet efficiency. With the BFT fishery nearing commercial collapse, it thus became an urgent necessity to estimate in detail the fishing capacity of operative purse seine fleets targeting BFT inside the Mediterranean Sea. This report aims at filling the current gap in the quantification of real at-sea capacity of BFT purse seine fleets, thus providing a much-needed baseline for the ongoing management processes targeting the reduction of fishing pressure on the East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna stock.

Download here the full report and associated annexes.

Update after 5 years of Marine Turtle monitoring in Gamba, Gabon (2002-2007)

2008-01-22

Considering the environmental concerns on global level, and following other countries in the Congo
Basin, Gabon has been endowed with a network of 13 National Parks, representing the countries
ecological and biological wealth. One of the characteristics of the country’s recognized biological
diversity is the presence of nesting sites for several marine turtle species of the cheloniidae family and
one of the dérmochelyidae family.

The presence of four species of marine turtles in Gabon, of which some estimates go as far as 30% of
the worlds nesting leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) population (see 2006 report) and their
endangered status, make them flagship ship species for conservation and scientific research.

The beaches near Gamba town situated in the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas (GCPA) are part of
these privileged nesting sites for marine turtles. The 200 km of coastline of the Complex receives an
average of 2000 turtles every year (see 2006 report). Since 2002, the NGO Ibonga-ACPE in
collaboration with WWF and his partners (PROTOMAC) contributes every nesting season to the
monitoring and daily research on 5.75 km of beach near Gamba.

For the 2006-2007 nesting season, the activities of Ibonga’s monitoring team started at the 5th of
November 2006 till the 31st of April 2007 (including one week preparing the camp), thanks to financial
support from the RAPAC (Réseau des Aires Protégées d’Afrique Centrale) and the UICN (the World
Conservation Union).

This report will firstly present the geographical context, the different conservation activities, before
showing the final results and analysing these results, to end with suggestions for future activities and
the conclusion.

Technical Report:
Update after 5 years of Marine Turtle monitoring in Gamba, Gabon (2002-2007)
By: Gil-Avery Mounguéngui Mounguéngui
Technical Coordinator IBONGA-ACPE
Translated by Bas Verhage (Conservation Advisor WWF, Gabon)

Benchmarking Study: Certification Programmes for Aquaculture

2007-12-14

WWF's interest in aquaculture began in 1994 with a study comparing the impacts of shrimp aquaculture and shrimp trawling to determine which system of producing shrimp was better. The study concluded that, while both systems had serious environmental impacts, shrimp aquaculture had better practices and technology in place for making production more viable. At that time, WWF decided to focus its attention on identifying and disseminating information on more sustainable shrimp aquaculture practices.

In 1999, the WWF, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme created the Shrimp Farming and the Environment Consortium to support research on the industry’s impacts; identify areas of disagreement or little data; document better management practices (BMPs) that reduced shrimp aquaculture’s on-farm or cumulative impacts; and build consensus around the key impacts as well as ways to reduce them. This award-winning work is still generally accepted as the most up to date and credible body of information about the shrimp aquaculture industry.

As part of this work, WWF undertook a side-by-side comparison of different shrimp aquaculture certification programmes. Since none were found to be credible, Dr Jason Clay and Dr Claude Boyd, working on behalf of the consortium, drafted principles, criteria, indicators and ranges of performance levels (e.g. standards) for better shrimp aquaculture. These were posted electronically on the NACA website and vetted globally by numerous and varied stakeholders. A modified version of principles and criteria were then formally accepted and published in 2006 by the FAO and NACA.

For the past decade, WWF has been working on a range of aquaculture issues in priority areas worldwide, focusing on the culture of shrimp, salmon, catfish, tilapia pangasius, trout, and molluscs (including oysters, clams, mussels, abalone and scallops). At the same time, WWF has become much more interested in certification as a tool to provide incentives for improving aquaculture production globally.

WWF has a long history of developing certification programmes for different industries (e.g. Forest Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, Marine Aquarium Council and Protected Harvest). Credible certification programmes should be created by multistakeholder groups, built on a consensus on key impacts, identify and support the adoption or adaptation of BMPs that measurably reduce key environmental and social impacts, determine globally acceptable performance levels, and improve performance in an industry.

Despite the existence of at least 30 aquaculture certification programmes, innumerable suppliers and retailers have approached WWF to develop more credible standards. That is why WWF is the catalyst for the Aquaculture Dialogues a series of species-specific dialogues aimed at developing measurable, performance-based standards for certifying aquaculture products. Dialogue participants include representatives from the aquaculture industry, academia, NGOs and government agencies. Standards for up to 12 species are expected to be completed in 2008 and 2009. The dialogues have shaped WWF’s position on aquaculture development and on the credibility and effectiveness of aquaculture certification programmes.

WWF has identified numerous shortcomings, constraints and challenges with existing certification programmes that need to be addressed if they are to help the sector achieve long-term sustainability. The lessons learned provide the framework for this study.

With an eye to the future: Addressing failures in the global management of bigeye tuna

2007-11-21

A WWF-TRAFFIC report shows that bigeye tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Western and Central Pacific Oceans are all suffering from excessive fishing, and that management has generally failed to initiate measures that address the specific causes of fishing pressure on the species.

Without swift and effective management action, the status of bigeye tuna stocks is likely to deteriorate in the same way as stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna and southern bluefin tuna, which are now considered by The World Conservation Union to be "Critically Endangered" or "Endangered".

The report — launched before a management meeting on the The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission — offers measures needed to protect the stock, such as setting of precautionary catch limits, introduction of bigeye population restoration programmes, halting the harvesting of juvenile fish, and improved data collection.