Greenpeace says that new figures from the tenth meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission Scientific Committee (WCPFC), reveal that bigeye tuna is now officially overfished and is in danger of heading down the same track as Bluefin tuna.
Dr Cat Dorey, from Greenpeace International’s Sustainable Seafood Programme, said: “Greenpeace has been raising the alarm about bigeye since 2006. Now it’s a fishery at 16% of its original stock size – a limit the Commission itself says is an unacceptable risk.”
She pointed out that these new figures show that a permanent, year-long ban on the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) is an absolute necessity.
The use of FADs, floating devices that increase catches but result in large quantities of bycatch being caught, catches mostly juvenile bigeyes that haven’t had a chance to reproduce.
“A current four-month ban on FADs reduces the pressure on bigeye during those months, but there is no excuse for using this indiscriminate fishing method the remaining eight months of the year,” Dr Dorey continued.
Greenpeace wants a recovery plan for bigeye tuna that includes a full ban on FAD use, cuts to longline effort, cuts to purse seine capacity and the closure of the high seas pockets to all tuna fishing.
It also wants to see a moratorium on targeting Pacific Bluefin tuna and interim target reference points for all tuna and billfish species.
