Overfishing threatens European bl...(he last year for which data are availabl...)

Date:11/7/2008

he last year for which data are available), the officially reported landings were 30,650 tonnes. On top of that come the illegal landings. ICCAT itself has estimated that the illegal landings were about 20,000 tonnes so that total landings (legal plus illegal) were ca. 50,000 tonnes. In 2007, ICCAT suspects the total legal and illegal landings were 60,000 tonnes.

Professor Brian MacKenzie, DTU Aqua, says: "New regulations and measures need to protect the fish that are still left in the wild. This will mean a substantial reduction of both fishing mortality and fishing effort, plus the political will to implement and enforce new regulations."

"The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to rebuild the population. There is also a risk that the population might never come back if it declines too much. That is because the ecosystem could change so that it is less productive for bluefin tuna. Such a change happened on the Canadian East Coast when cod populations declined but still have not come back, even after a fishing moratorium.

The scientists have calculated how the bluefin tuna population will develop under the recovery plan assuming that the existing quotas are enforced, and assuming that the illegal landings continue at recent levels.

"Even under the recovery plan, the population will likely fall to new record low levels in the next 2-3 years. The existing quotas are too high and will allow fishing fleets to catch all or nearly all of the adult bluefin tuna in the entire northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. That situation will make reproductive success of the population much more vulnerable to bad environmental and ecosystem conditions," says Brian MacKenzie, DTU Aqua.

Important decision

ICCAT will meet later in November to decide about bluefin tuna fishing regulations, and whether the present recovery plan needs to be changed.

In June 2008, the EU closed its bluefin tuna fish
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Contact: Kira Paulli Pravato kpp@ruc.dk 454-674-3222 Census of Marine Life Source:Eurekalert

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