Greenpeace has called on the New Zealand government to support a plan to make the Pacific’s tuna fisheries sustainable following further reports of declining stocks.
“Global tuna stocks have plummeted due to overfishing. The Pacific is now the world’s last relatively healthy fishery and must be protected if we are to avoid the same thing happening here”, said Lagi Toribau Greenpeace Australia Pacific Ocean campaigner.
Stocks of Pacific skipjack, bigeye and yellowfin tuna are in decline according to reports recently presented at a meeting of the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Tonga. Pacific skipjack supplies 55% of the world’s tinned tuna.
Later this year the WCPFC will discuss a plan to close four areas of international waters in the Pacific region to all fishing. The plan already has the support of Pacific island nations and Australia. The New Zealand government has not confirmed its position.
“New Zealand must support its neighbours to make the Pacific’s tuna fisheries sustainable. Doing so is vital for the well-being of Pacific Island nations, both as a crucial economic resource and as a primary source of food, and the health of the ocean,” said Greenpeace New Zealand Oceans campaigner Karli Thomas. Greenpeace is also calling on countries to reduce regional tuna catches by 50% and ban purse-seine fishing using fish aggregation devices (FADs). This method is meant to increases catch levels and efficiency – however it results in large numbers of turtles and sharks being caught together with juvenile tuna.
A record 2,467,903 million metric tonnes of tuna were caught in the Pacific last year. According to Greenpeace, figures show that 73% was tuna caught mainly by large purse-seine fleets using FADs to attract fish.
Bigeye and yellowfin continue to decline as conservation efforts to date have proved to be too little too late. The breeding population of Pacific bigeye is now estimated to be down to 17%, close to the levels of the Atlantic bluefin which is below 15%.
“An enormous ecological, social and economic disaster is looming and the Pacific Island countries must ban purse-seine fishing using FADs and cut the number of fishing vessels licensed in their waters before it is too late” said Toribau.
In 2009, a two-month ban on FADs in the Pacific proved effective in reducing the bycatch of vulnerable bigeye and yellowfin, but subsequent resumption of FAD fishing for the remainder of the year resulted in large catches of juvenile tuna, said the NGO.
