The End of the Line
Blogger: Forest & Bird Marine Advocate, Kirstie Knowles
Our critically endangered Southern Bluefin Tuna swims around the seas of several countries from Australia to Japan – and while these countries are working to reduce their quotas – we are trying to bump ours up by 25%.
Southern Bluefin Tuna, Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Fisheries.
The back-story goes something like this. Five (Japan, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea & NZ) countries work together to set up a Commission for Conservation (estab 1994) for Bluefin Tuna that sets fishing quotas for each country.
However, one of the founding signatories, Japan ( 1994) and recent signees Indonesia (2008), Taiwan (2002) & Korea (2001) have flouted their quota agreements and now New Zealand wants to get even, by putting in a proposal to up its tonnage from 420 – 532 tonnes.
It’s greedy to say the least given that we’re talking about a Critically Endangered Fish. Just recently, the commission has agreed to reduce the total fishing quota by 20%, and yet we want to catch more fish.
It’s like turning around and saying ‘right – we’ve done our bit– and others haven’t, who cares about the endangered listing – lets have our real share, ’
A weak ‘conservation’ commission like this leading a half-hearted attempt to reduce the catch by 20% doesn’t lead to species revival.
Who knows, we may end up in the situation Canada got themselves into in 1994 when their cod population collapsed?
And it wasn’t just the cod that suffered – 40,000 people were left jobless and the government had to fork out 2 billion dollars. It is still closed.
Our Bluefin tuna’s Atlantic cousin – the Atlantic bluefin tuna – is a case in point. Some scientists predict it’ll go in extinct in two to three years – something that is highlighted in our Seaweek movie (a world premiere!) – The End of the Line.
So far over the Ministry of Fisheries has received 1,700 submissions asking it to not increase the quota and to consider a ban on the fishing of Southern bluefin tuna so stocks can recover. It included a submission by Forest & Bird which can be read here. It is expected that a decision on the proposal will be made in a few months time.
