Happy tail?
Hold your breath; you may be about to see one of the biggest and boldest U-turns in the history of mankind's management of the seas.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) is meeting this week in Marrakech; European negotiators arrived carrying a plan that would see bluefin tuna fishing suspended completely in the Mediterranean for a year or more.
Certainly something needs to happen. Recent years have seen fishermen deploying ever bigger and cleverer technologies in an effort to catch what is probably the most valuable fish in the sea.
The results have been entirely predictable; with catches soaring and illegal fishing rampant, numbers are crashing and boats are finding precious few of the really big fish that once made up their entire catch.
The European Commission ended this year's season early, with fisheries commissioner Joe Borg complaining of "countless failures to properly implement the rules", including French boats that had fished for three weeks and not declared any catches.
Last month, the biggest tuna-fishing nation, Spain, backed calls for a suspension, while Italy is also reportedly supporting a ban.
Japan, the destination for most of the catch, recently agreed cuts in its own tuna catches and has said for two years that Mediterranean quotas are unsustainably high, while the US has been the strongest voice for restraint.
By the time the meeting ends next Monday, will Iccat negotiators have been shown to be bold enough? There are many parties in the talks, such as Libya, whose positions are impossible to gauge; and even within the EU, France is thought to oppose any stringent moves.
Iccat's decision will be closely watched. A suspension would be a marker, showing that even the most powerful commercial interests on the seas can be sublimated, and quickly, when the case for conservation is clear.
It will also be fascinating to see how member countries would go about putting a proportion of the tuna vessels "beyond use", as the opposing factions used to say in Northern Ireland.
It is not a trite analogy; the key to saving the bluefin is, in the end, to reduce the number and size of boats chasing it.
Some countries, including the UK, have staged reductions in their fishing fleets in an attempt to spread the pain of falling quotas for species such as cod; but here, we would be talking about an abrupt halt, in vessels that are not designed to do anything but scoop up tuna.
The temptation will be to take a milder medicine; to shorten the fishing season still further, to create more "safe havens", to cut quotas.
My instinct is that this is the way Iccat members will vote; if they do, we may be having the discussion all over again in two years' time.
I'm Richard Black, environment correspondent for the BBC News website. This is my take on what's happening to our shared environment as the human population grows and our use of nature's resources increases.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~35~RS~)
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there you are Richard. I had wondered where you'd gone!
As for bluefin tuna, you do mention there's too much of the illegal variety. If the Iccat won't do anything meaningful about that, I am afraid it will all end up in empty posturing.
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I predict - like with cod quotas - we will see political expediency triumph over overwhelming scientific evidence of the need for a complete ban on fishing for this species.
Greed has made a mockery of any attempt to limit catches by setting quotas & national interest precludes any chance of saving tuna stocks from collapse.
When these trawlers can fish for weeks, yet fail to register ANY landings, the only explanation can be corruption amongst those charged with enforcing quotas.
Goodbye tuna, you were a good thing while you lasted...........
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This is a really interesting article. With many species being fished to the brink of extinction is it time for us to take a different view of wild fish?
I think it was Jacques Cousteau that said "We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about - farming replacing hunting." Does aquaculture offer a sustainable alternative?
Taking the pressure off wild stocks is definitely the right thing to do.
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HI Richard,
Why are we hunter gathers of fish stocks in the 21st century ?
Common sense - we "reap what we sow"
Why are we not farming the oceans fish stocks as a global community ie producing trillions of fish spawn of each commerical fish stock to replace the 1000 tonnes taken out each year ?
Simplitic and common sense become farmers not gathers .
Kind regards
ac & the goldfish :-)
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Since there appears to be no moves afoot (a-fin?) to reduce the demand for tuna, I expect this attempt at Prohibition to be exactly as effective as that phrasing would suggest.
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I know that what i am going to say is going to simplify the argument but .........why cant we catch live breeding size fish , get the eggs/sperm and release the young at an appropriate size.
IMO we have to learn to farm the seas and this involves keeping seed for next year and the year after......seems so logical to me and if we catch x tons a year the people have to return x+ tons back...we surely have the knowledge to do it....just needs political will,and of course money to do it.
We cant just keep catching ad infinitum
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The fishing industry seems to be as untouchable as Isreal.
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Things will only change when we view fish as wildlife and not as commodities. The pressure on government scientists and politicians alike is incredibly difficult to ignore when it comes to compromising. Unfortunately those short-term compromises are paid for later with the loss of species.
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The only turning point will come when the fishing companies will realise they have actually fished the blue fin tuna to extinction. Even then the attention will turn to another species that can be exploited.
Money makes the world go round, so long as there is a price for the tuna, it will be fished.
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I am reminded of my childhood. Lowestoft 1925/8. The town would be overwhelmed with the smell of rotting fish. Herring catches which had not been sold at market were spread on the fields as Fish Manure.
And we know what happened to the herring industry, don't we.
The same goes for Cod. And as for Tuna, the French and Italians will go their own way, as always cockng a snook at any conservation laws are that are enacted.
Tuna fish will be wiped out.
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Wonderful idea that Britain will be expected to follow whilst the rest ignore and blame each other for ?lapses? (aka criminal fishing) by claiming exclusive aboriginal rights!
Lets have each EU country patrol the sea fishery of another, with bonuses for catching the illegal fishing folk ? even their own!
At least using a virtual poacher would be better than months of meaningless but very expensive trips for ministers!
It might save the fish too!
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The problem with Blue Fin has been that for more than 20 years - not just recently, the entire middle generation has been seriously over fished. I know because my husband used to tag them as part of a long term study.
As the giant Blue Fins die off, or are caught, and the younger adults are fished out, the juveniles, which are too young to reproduce, will be the only ones left. This will leave the entire species increasingly vulnerable to factors such as disease that could wipe them out permanently.
Along with a ban on fishing for a period, there ought to be an educational piece to help the public world wide understand the stakes. (Are you listening Japan?)
If more people knew the danger, perhaps the more ethical among them would choose not to purchase Blue Fin until their numbers went back up to sustainable levels.
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