Greenpeace readying report on fishing rules violations by Southeast Asian countries

MANILA, Philippines - Greenpeace said on Saturday it will formally submit a dossier detailing recent violations of fishing rules by the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).


Similar dossier submissions in the past have resulted in large penalties for the ships' owner companies as well as the ships' inclusion in a global pirate fishing blacklist.


Among the violations recorded were illegal transshipment, vessels operating in the high seas without permits, failure to report via the mandatory Vessel Monitoring System, operating in the high seas without mandatory observers on board, and illegal deployment of fish aggregating devices (FADs).


The WCPFC, also known as the Pacific Tuna Commission, is meeting in Manila starting Sunday to chart management and conservation measures in the face of fast-declining tuna stocks. Waters around Pacific island countries supply 60% of the world's tuna demand, but tuna species such as yellow fin and albacore are on the brink of collapse due to massive overfishing by ships from Asia, the Americas and Europe.

"While at sea, we saw firsthand that pirate fishing and destructive fishing methods abound in the Pacific. The evidence we gathered clearly demonstrate failure by governments and industries to comply with the most basic rules they themselves have instituted through the Tuna Commission," said Chow Yuen Ping, Greenpeace campaigner on board the ship Esperanza which docked Saturday in Manila.

Last month, Greenpeace conducted an expedition in the waters of Palau and the Pacific High Seas Pocket 1, the area of international waters between the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Papua New Guinea. This is the sixth expedition conducted by Greenpeace in the Western and Central Pacific region to defend dwindling tuna stocks and expose the conservation, management and compliance challenges in this region.

"For several years now, Greenpeace has shown the vulnerability of international waters to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. Members of the commission must now agree to close pockets of international waters in the Pacific to halt fishing violations and allow tuna stocks to replenish," said Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace head of delegation to WCPFC.

Greenpeace has been working with Pacific governments to address overfishing and prevent foreign fishing powers from plundering their fishing grounds. The environmental group is calling for marine reserves to be established in four high seas pockets known as the Pacific Commons, and for these be declared off-limits to fishing.

At the upcoming meeting, it is also seeking a ban on the use of FADs in purse seine fisheries and a 50% reduction in the catch of big-eye tuna.

The Philippines, host of this week's meeting, is a regular cooperating member of the WCPFC. The country's tuna industry is heavily dependent on the supply of tuna caught in the Pacific. Last October, the WCPFC granted the country rights for 36 vessels to fish in Pocket 1 which was previously closed to all fishing vessels.

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is currently in Manila for the international WCPFC meeting which ends on Dec. 6. The ship will remain in the country for the Philippines' "Ocean Defender Ship Tour" from Dec. 8 to 15.

Greenpeace is campaigning for a global network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world's oceans and for a more sustainable fishing industry -- two necessary steps to restoring oceans to health.

The group is also working with the retailers and tuna brands across Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific to increase the market share of sustainably sourced tuna.

source: interaksyon.com

Overfishing pushes tuna stocks to the brink - experts

JEJU, South Korea - Global tuna stocks are fast reaching the limits of fishing sustainability, decimated by an absence of comprehensive, science-based catch limits, conservation experts warned Saturday.

Five of the world's eight tuna species are already classified as threatened or nearly threatened with extinction, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

At the IUCN's World Conservation Congress currently underway in South Korea's southern Jeju Island, experts said partial quotas currently in place were inadequate and uninformed.

"The problem is, there is lack of science-based catch limits to ensure effective management and conservation," said Amanda Nickson, Director of Global Tuna Conservation at the Pew Environment Group.

The five Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) that manage the global tuna fishing industry do have some measures in place, including restricting the catch of certain species to the amount caught in a previously defined year.

They also operate "input controls" that, among other things, limit the number of fishing vessels, but Nickson argued these were ineffective as they simply provided an incentive to develop more effective fishing methods.

While acknowledging that scientific data on tuna stocks was "imperfect", Nickson said the UN Fish Stocks Agreement specifically provided for the setting of catch limits if the evidence in favour was compelling enough.

"There is sufficient science available to set precautionary limits," Nickson said.

"If we wait five, 10 years for the science to be perfect, in the case of some species we may not have anything left to manage," she added.

The Atlantic bluefin species, which can live to 40 years old and grow to more than four metres (13 feet) long, is in the gravest danger of disappearing with stocks estimated in some areas to have halved over four decades.

It is so highly prized by sushi-loving Japanese that a 269-kilogram (592-pound) fish went for a record 56.49 million yen ($737,000 at the time) in January auctions.

"The message is that some tuna species are in bad shape," said Bruce Collette, chair of the IUCN Tuna and Billfish Specialist Group.

"Long living and high value tunas are threatened by over exploitation and under regulation by the regional agencies," Collette warned.

The global tuna industry is an economic juggernaut, with fishing in the Pacific Ocean alone -- accounting for 65 percent of the global commercial catch -- worth around $5.5 billion a year.

Toshio Katsukawa, a fisheries expert from Mie University in Japan, said only urgent international cooperation could safeguard the future of the Pacific bluefin tuna.

"Immediate action is necessary" because the risk of commercial extinction is immediate, Katsukawa said.

source: interaksyon.com

Greenpeace urges action on slumping tuna stocks

BANGKOK — Greenpeace Wednesday accused the tuna industry of failing to stop the decimation of fish stocks, and called for an end to fishing methods that also accidentally snare turtles, dolphins and sharks.

Five tuna species are classed as “threatened” or “near threatened” with extinction due to overfishing, according to the Red List of Threatened Species, prompting environmental groups to appeal for fewer industrial-scale boats.

As big players in the multi-billion dollar industry gathered for a trade conference in Bangkok, Greenpeace urged tuna brands to source fish sustainably and end “destructive” fishing methods that see other marine life caught.

“It’s an urgent situation. There are simply too many boats… there needs to be a radical cut if we are going to reverse the decline in stocks,” Sari Tolvanen, a campaigner with the environmental group, told AFP.

“You would think the industry would be concerned about declining stocks, but it’s sitting on its hands.”

Greenpeace says tuna populations can rebound if they are given adequate protection.

The group wants a ban on “fish aggregating devices” that lure marine life into vast bucket-like nets with the result that 10 percent of each catch is made up of species other than tuna.

The tuna industry—from the factory-sized boats to supermarkets—says it recognizes the problem of dwindling stocks and follows quotas limiting catch to mature fish in waters where stocks are abundant.

In the United States, the world’s largest canned tuna market, major brands have pledged to work with their suppliers to reduce the amount of marine life netted accidentally.

In-Soo Cho, chief executive of StarKist, the U.S.‘s largest tinned tuna firm, urged the Bangkok conference to recognize how “precious this limited source of food is,” but warned plunging tuna prices threatened profits.

The Atlantic bluefin species, which can live to 40 years old and grow to more than four meters long, is in the gravest danger of disappearing with stocks estimated in some areas to have halved over four decades.

It is so highly prized by sushi-loving Japanese that a 269-kilogram fish went for a record 56.49 million yen in January auctions.

International agreements to tighten fishing controls are coming into effect, with the European Union, whose waters provide 60% of the global haul of bluefin tuna, mulling laws to protect the endangered species by slashing quotas.

But they can do little to prevent illegal fishing of at-risk species, which also include bigeye, classified as vulnerable, along with yellowfin and albacore, both ranked as near threatened.

“As with any industry there are bad actors,” said Susan Jackson, head of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)—a coalition of conservation groups, scientists and the tuna companies.

“But we must aim to prevent tuna stocks and their ecosytems being exposed to unnecessary pressure,” she said, adding the industry will still “thrive” with tightened controls on catches.

One ISSF idea is to equip boats with tablet computers to record hauls and help build a detailed picture of global tuna stocks and the scale of accidental catches, she added.

Five main species of tuna make up the annual worldwide catch of 4-4.5 million tons.

Destined mainly for supermarket shelves, the abundant skipjack accounts for 60% of the total.

source: japantoday.com