WWF has issued a press release regarding National Geographic magazine''s "exposé" of the Mediterranean''s endangered bluefin tuna.
The organisation has described the article as "a hard-hitting examination of the science but also the murky business interests and socioeconomic stakes in this ancient fishery".
Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean, is quoted on the crisis: "My big fear is that it may be too late. I have a very graphic image in my mind. It is of the migration of so many buffalo in the American West in the early 19th century. It was the same with bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, a migration of a massive number of animals. And now we are witnessing the same phenomenon happening to giant bluefin tuna that we saw happen with America's buffalo. We are witnessing this, right now, right before our eyes."
Director of the US National Marine Fisheries Service and current ICCAT Chairman, Bill Hogarth, reflects on the Dubrovnik ICCAT meeting: "I was really disappointed - when it got to bluefin, science just seemed to go out the window. The bottom line was that, as chairman, I felt I was sort of presiding over the demise of one of the most magnificent fish that swims the ocean."
Meanwhile, Masanori Miyahara of the Fisheries Agency of Japan describes the whole fishery as a "black box".
The article concludes that ecosystem-based management is the way forward, and that "management councils that oversee fisheries, such as ICCAT, long dominated by commercial fishing interests, must share power with scientists and conservationists". Other solutions put forward are reduction in fleet capacity and subsidies, drastic quota reduction, MPA creation, and MSC certification.
The full article can be found at: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0704/feature1/
