By Capt. John McMurray
How was your bluefin season this year? I hope better than mine as I didn’t see one, much less hook one. Last year my boat probably saw over 50 of these extraordinary fish, and I wasn’t alone. Many northeast and mid-Atlantic flyfishers took advantage of the spectacular run of school bluefin tuna we had just a few miles from the shore last year. Why these fish suddenly appeared remains a mystery. However, some scientists believe that the abundance of small fish were spawned by year classes born in 94 that are just maturing.
But why then did we not see them again in the same sort of numbers this year? No data exists on these school bluefin at the moment, and the abundance could be a result of the redistribution of the forage base, or simply changing water temps, but conditions in 2006 really weren’t much different from 2005’s.
Currently, there is a tagging study underway which will track movements of juvenile bluefin. But, the question still remains: Will those school bluefin make it to spawning size before harvest depletes their numbers? Sadly, I am not optimistic. I suspect those fish went to the Mediterranean over the winter as some studies suggest school bluefin do. And I suspect they were they scooped up by the gigantic fleet of European purse-seine boats out there? This belief is reinforced by the fact that I saw hundreds of these fish blitzing just a couple hundred yards from the beach while vacationing in Maderia, an Island off of Portugal, last January. These were the same size fish we had here. Unfortunately, there are no commercial or recreational size limits on tuna in Europe, and while there are quotas, there is little to no enforcement.
Despite the abundance of school bluefin we saw last year, that may or may not have made it to 2007, The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) estimates that Atlantic Bluefin populations are at 10 to 20% of what they were in the early 70’s. Many scientists believe that unless some changes are made quickly, Atlantic bluefin could be headed toward extinction.
There are solutions to the problems bluefin are facing, but whether or not the managing authorities have the backbone to ensure this species doesn’t go the way of the passenger pigeon is in question. Bluefin are perhaps the most sought after fish in the ocean because of their unusually high commercial value in the Japanese sushi market (some fish can sell for upwards of $100K!). Therefore it’s no surprise that bluefin, specifically the Atlantic stock, are in serious decline.
There are two distinct populations of Atlantic Bluefin: A western stock that spawns in the Gulf of Mexico and an eastern stock which reproduces in the Mediterranean Sea. Back in the early 80’s ICCAT established the longitude 45 degrees west line, which runs down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as the boundary between the eastern and western management zones. That decision was based on the best science available at the time, which suggested that the two stocks were separate and rarely intermingled.
Stock assessments have indicated for some time that the western stock is in serious decline, but that the eastern stock, while still waning, is doing better. Today ICCAT limits the annual tuna catch in the western Atlantic to 3,000-tons while allowing an astounding 32,000-ton quota in the Eastern Atlantic.
A report published in the journal Nature last spring emphasized that the two “separate” stocks frequently ignore the longitude 45W boundary and intermingle regularly at productive feeding grounds. Thus, bluefin from the North American waters, where fishing regulations are strict and quotas relatively small, are crossing the ocean to areas where quotas are higher and regulations are often ignored. This raises serious questions about whether ICCAT quotas protect vulnerable western bluefin that cross the imaginary 45W line into eastern waters to feed.
The US must convince ICCAT to move the current east/west boundary east, toward European waters where the mixing occurs. That would protect some of the largest tuna with the greatest reproductive potential. Closing productive feeding grounds where the two stocks mix may also be warranted. Furthermore, the US needs to insist on tighter quotas in the Eastern Atlantic. Trade sanctions and other economic measures could be implemented by the US to push eastern countries to end routine violations of size and catch limits by their fleets.
That would be the first thing we could do to protect declining stocks. But, there is quite a bit more we could do on the domestic front. Stay tuned and I’ll cover some other aspects in a future blog.