Atlantic bluefin tuna are the new hip fish to target with a fly rod, and for good reason. They get big, are extremely strong and are one of the fastest fish in the sea. I speak from experience that there is nothing quite as intense as chasing schools of 100-pound fish and lobbing flies at them while they blast baitfish on the surface. That's why it pains me to say that it's time anglers consider a moratorium.
The decline of this apex predator due to commercial demand — and the high price it brings on the sushi market — is well documented. The size of the western breeding population, which spawns in the Gulf of Mexico, is estimated to be just 10 percent of what it was in the 1970s, and it is still declining.
After years of filling quota, the United States' commercial bluefin industry only managed to catch 14 percent of its allocation in 2007 and 10 percent in 2006. Until a few years ago, such quotas were overshot annually. But fishing efforts remain strong, and such harvest decline is almost certainly due to a lack of fish. Recent research indicates that bluefin caught off the eastern U.S. include many fish from the larger eastern breeding population. That leads many to believe that low U.S. catch numbers could mean the decline of the western stock is even worse than previously thought.
Scientists predict an imminent collapse of the western stock and severe problems with the eastern stock unless decisive action is taken immediately.
Short-term Interests vs. Long-term Viability
Bluefin tuna are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Unfortunately, ICCAT has never met its mandate to maintain fish populations at levels allowing "maximum sustainable catches." Instead, it consistently proposes quotas considerably larger than those recommended by scientists, primarily because of heavy industry lobbying and interference by politicians who claim to act on behalf of their constituents. In fact, they work against their constituent communities' long-term interests.
"So many people have interfered with the scientific process in order to keep catches high," writes Carl Safina, president of the Blue Ocean Institute. "The irony is that the western Atlantic blue-fin population is crashing, and those who sought high catches are now witnessing catches that are under 10 percent of the quota, with the resulting loss of economic activity."
The bluefin's problems are just one glaring example of how management fails if good science is subordinated to short-term economic concerns.
"The focus has been on the business side of this fishery for far too long, and greed has been the driving force in its management," says Charles Witek, vice chairman of the Coastal Conservation Association's National Government Relations Committee. "CCA has long known that focusing on anything other than the health of the resource is the first step to ensuring its demise. Bluefin are another tragic example of what happens when you put business and fishermen first."
