Moratorium: The Obvious Solution
Safina writes that all of this points "toward the wisdom of temporarily ceasing all fishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna, revamping fisheries-management commissions such that scientific advice is independent and insulated from lobbying, and mandating managers to limit fisheries catches to levels recommended by those independent scientists."
CCA's board of directors is calling for a reduction of the Atlantic harvest of bluefin tuna to levels supported by science. They are urging ICCAT to require all member nations to adopt such quotas by emergency action. If ICCAT fails to do so (which is likely), CCA believes that the only alternative is a complete closure of the Atlantic bluefin fishery and an international curtailment of trade.
Even the suggestion of such a closure has caused waves of discontent not only with commercial fishers but among anglers. Even the fly-fishing community, particularly on Cape Cod, is uneasy about such a closure, as bluefin now account for a significant portion of the fly-fishing charter business.
Some argue that the recreational angling community is not responsible for these declines, since the largest source of mortality for the western-stock spawners seems to be emanating from the longline industry in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, U.S. recreational fishermen are killing too many juveniles. It's a surprising fact that recreational catches account for 70 percent of the total U.S. catch by weight. By number, anglers account for about 90 percent of the fishing mortality.
Bluefin that spawn in the Gulf of Mexico don't mature until about age 12 (as opposed to eastern-stock fish that mature at age 5), so the reality is that anglers are "robbing the cradle." Juveniles are now crucial to rebuilding the bluefin population. Anglers killed approximately 15,500 juvenile bluefin in the second half of 2007. If the average recreational catch is 47 inches and 66 pounds (legal size is between 27 to 73 inches), that's 11 recreationally caught juveniles for every adult caught in the commercial fishery. Natural mortality of juveniles is low, as a 66-pound fish has few predators. Thus, to say anglers are not currently part of the bluefin's woes is factually incorrect.
Undoubtedly, commercial interests decimated stocks in the first place. Yet, as Dr. Russell Nelson, CCA's Gulf Fisheries consultant, correctly notes, "as is so often the case, the American fisherman is not responsible for driving bluefin tuna to the brink of collapse, but they are going to have to be a part of the solution to salvage what is left."
Continued decline appears inevitable unless catches are reduced to near zero. A moratorium on possession of bluefin tuna throughout the western Atlantic is not unreasonable. And a closure of Gulf of Mexico spawning areas for all gear capable of catching bluefin as bycatch is also warranted.
In the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, harvest should be halted until quotas and management-area boundaries adequately address the mixing of western fish with eastern fish and until scientifically-supportable regulations are imposed and adequately enforced.
The western stock probably won't survive if fishing of any kind continues.
Says Safina: "Recreational groups must now join forces to spearhead the kind of last-chance recovery that worked for striped bass. If you don't want to give up bluefin forever, recognize that what's needed now is a five-year moratorium on bluefin landings."
