ICCAT Moves to Properly Manage Bluefin Tuna, but Doesn’t Take Action for Sharks and Swordfish - Oceana
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November 26, 2014

ICCAT Moves to Properly Manage Bluefin Tuna, but Doesn’t Take Action for Sharks and Swordfish

BY: Oceana

*** Local Caption *** Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in a tuna cage near the surface. Malta. Marviva Med Mediterranean Expedition. June 2008. Atunes rojos (Thunnus thynnus) en jaula, cerca de la superficie. Malta. ExpediciÛn por el Mediterr·neo del Marviva Med. Junio 2008.

 

Earlier this month, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded its meeting in Genoa, Italy to discuss protections for various marine species, including bluefin tuna, sharks, and swordfish. At the same time, the IUCN World Parks Congress concluded its once-a-decade meeting with new protections for marine habitat and other developments for the ocean. This blog post, originally published on Oceana in Europe’s blog, takes a look at some of the outcomes from these two events.

Yet More Species Pushed to The Limit

By Leah Barrett

Following this year’s World Parks Congress in Sydney, the IUCN Red List was updated, showing that the Pacific Bluefin tuna, Chinese puffer fish, American eel, Chinese cobra, and the Australian butterfly are currently being pushed to the limit.

The Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) was moved from the “least at risk” category to now being listed as “vulnerable,” meaning that it is directly at risk from extinction if circumstances that threaten its survival don’t change. What puts this species at such a high risk is the huge demand for sushi, a market which has boomed both in Asia and worldwide in recent years.

However, it’s not just the Pacific bluefin tuna that is threatened. Its cousin, the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) has also undergone deep trouble these past years.

Last week, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) met in Genoa, Italy to discuss management plans. Because the stock has shown recent signs of improvement, there were fears that this meeting would end badly for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, and that catch limits would be drastically increased, outside the limit of scientific recommendations. However, to the relief of Oceana, the increase in catch limits adhered to scientific advice, hopefully paving the way to a successful recovery for this species.

Unfortunately, not all threatened species were given such treatment. Sharks and Mediterranean swordfish, both of which Oceana has heavily campaigned for, were not given the priority that they needed as no management plans were agreed upon, allowing overfishing to just continue. Even though the IUCN Red List lists swordfish as “least concern,” the Mediterranean stock is heavily overfished and poorly mismanaged.

Back to the IUCN Red List, now a shocking total of 22,123 out of 76,199 assessed species are threatened with extinction, or one-third. Every time a species is “upgraded” to a more threatened category, it signifies to us that something is wrong with how we are managing the biodiversity around us, both terrestrial and marine. But do we really need to wait until a species is listed as “endangered” on the IUCN Red List until effective management measures are actually put in place?

Click here to view photos associated with the 2014 ICCAT conference.

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