The Pew Environment Group last week joined 14 fishing and conservation organisations and more than 55,000 members of the general public in urging the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reject its current proposal to allow commercial longline fishermen to catch and sell more Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Approximately 55,000 citizens filed comments urging NMFS to protect western Atlantic bluefin tuna by implementing an area closure on longline gear in the Gulf of Mexico, the only known spawning area for the species. Scientists estimate that the number of mature western Atlantic bluefin tuna has dropped more than 80% since 1970, and fewer than 20,000 adults may remain. Much of this decline comes from the intense commercial fishing and incidental killing by vessels targeting yellowfin tuna and swordfish.
Directed commercial fishing for bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico has been banned since 1982, but longline fishermen targeting swordfish and yellowfin tuna are allowed to keep up to three incidentally-caught bluefin tuna per trip. Despite critically low population levels and the current ban, NMFS has proposed allowing commercial longline fishermen to catch and sell more fish than currently allowed by law.
In addition to protecting bluefin tuna, the ban would help conserve populations of white and blue marlin - both are categorised as subject to overfishing and are severely depleted. Endangered leatherback and threatened loggerhead sea turtles, which are caught and killed unintentionally by longlines, would also benefit from the closure, says Pew.
