There are positive responses from various people that the Obama administration should list Atlantic bluefin tuna as endangered to give the species a chance to recover. It is informed that the Obama administration has indicated that when it comes to international agreements, it’s giving high priority to arms control, human rights, law enforcement, investment and maritime law.
Still the issues of tuna have not been mentioned in any discussions. Unfortunately, that omission reveals a sea of trouble, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a rare chance to correct if it acts quickly, and if NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco follows her best scientific instincts.
It is found that the population that spawns in U.S. waters has declined by 82% since the 1970s, as commercial fishing fleets have responded to plunging catches by simply fishing more intensively, as if the supply were inexhaustible. Meanwhile, efforts to impose sustainable catch limits on this fish have failed miserably — for decades.
Last year, for example, the scientific committee of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the entity that is responsible for regulating this fishery, recommended a catch limit of 8,500 to 15,000 tons in order to stop its precipitous decline.
The Atlantic bluefin is only one example in an ocean that’s being overfished at an alarming rate, a practice that marine scientist Daniel Pauly recently compared to the Ponzi scheme of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff, offering constant returns from an ever-diminishing resource.
It is told that a proposal to protect bluefin under CITES has been made by the principality of Monaco. U.S. co-sponsorship of this proposal would help the effort immensely and prove a great opportunity for Washington to reassert its leadership in international conservation.
