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by John T. Koegler
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association July 2000 Newsletter)
Bluefin Tuna----The Good News
The angler Bluefin tuna season opens
on June 23 and continues until July 30, subject to quota limits. The bag limit is two
school Bluefin Tuna between 27" and 47" and one tuna between 47" and
63" per vessel trip.
The Bad News is the management
History of this Fishery.
No
other fishery Management plan has had as much written about it as Bluefin Tuna. ICCAT is
the international organization who is supposed to manage bluefin tuna and all tuna like
species ocean wide. They have been managing since the 1970's. However, only the US side of
the Atlantic had a management plan to limit commercial and angler landings.
NMFS first act in 1976 was to limit
anglers with a four tuna per person bag limit. Tough rules were imposed in 1981 and
tougher yet in 1991 that included a limit on angler school tuna landings at 8% of domestic
quota. The European side of the Atlantic did not approve a management plan with country
quotas until 1994. Then, the first year of quota management was delayed until 1998.
The
European fishermen went way over their 1998 quota of 32,000 MT. by catching and selling
48,000 MT. of Bluefin tuna. This is more than 16,000 MT. over quota! Understand that ICCAT
rules are self-imposed by each member nation on their own fishermen. ICCAT has no
enforcement capability other than international good will or international Bluefin tuna
trade restrictions.
France was the big offender. They
exceeded their ICCAT quota allocation by 10,000 MT. They refused to accept a 10,000 Mt.
reduction in their 2000 fishing year quota. Just their illegal catch was four times the
entire US, Japan and Canada combined Western Atlantic ICCAT quota of 2,500 MT.
Such issues are normally handled at
the next yearly meeting. However, The Europeans had this year's scheduled European stock
assessment of Bluefin tuna dropped from the report. Given that Tuna issues at ICCAT are
handled on a bi-annual basis, it will be two years before the next Stock assessment on the
European fishery is scheduled.
Is unilateral domestic conservation
without international compliance a total waste of time and effort? Is US conservation
being wiped out by European overfishing of our conserved Bluefin? Have ICCAT commissioners
allowed the Europeans to steal our conserved Bluefin, with No benefit to US fishermen?
Tables published by ICCAT answer
these questions. Below are the reported landed numbers for our side of the Atlantic called
Western and their side called Eastern Atlantic. In the table for 1963 the two sides
landing tonnage was almost equal. In 1981 NMFS imposes a 65% reduction on US fishermen,
which sharply reduced landings.
In 1991 The West (US, Canada, Japan)
imposed additional limits on our (western) landings, including an 8% school bluefin limit
for US fishermen (anglers) only. The ICCAT tables speak for themselves!
Year Western Eastern Total Mt. Western landing %t
1963 13,838 Mt 15,489 Mt 29,318 47.2% of landings
1974 5,393 Mt. 18,141 Mt 23,534 22.9% of landings
1984 2,292 Mt. 24,181 Mt 26,480 8.6% of landings
1996 2,401 Mt. 52,322 Mt 55,721 4.4% of landings
These tables indicate that European
overfishing is being supported by our conservation. US anglers are crushed by an 8% quota
limitation on school bluefin tuna, while our State Department and NMFS allow France to
decimate our conserved bluefin tuna. Now France refuses to accept the penalty for their
overfishing. There should be howls of protest from the all US fishermen.
NMFS has compounded their Bluefin
tuna management mistakes with a 3 Yellowfin tuna per fishermen limit, and now proposes
angler limits on the remaining tuna species. Anglers support conservation but not
international theft of our conserved fish. Agreeing to additional restrictions for
additional tuna species without getting European compliance with previous ICCAT agreements
is just plain stupid.
But then again, our press did not
name the "State Department" headquarters "Foggy Bottom" without a very
good reason.
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