11 June 2006
chasing up to the last tuna
by Sebastian onboard the Esperanza
Full moon but where
are all the tuna?
©Greenpeace/Gavin Newman
These days, from dawn to dusk, over 200 tuna purse seiners throughout the Mediterranean do the same. Many of them are equipped with state-of-the-art technology to find fish so it's not difficult to understand what is happening in the fishery, why the bluefin tuna may be disappearing from our sea.
Today they have not succeed though. Their nets remain dry on deck as they just cannot find any tuna at all.
A few years ago the tunas that where resident in areas like this, in the Eastern Mediterranean, were free from been targeted by tuna fleets. This somehow could guarantee that part of the population would be safe from the high pressure exerted by a fishing fleet that has been far too big and performant for many years now.
But this is not the case anymore. Safe havens such as the Gulf of Sirte in Libya or the area where we are now, off Egypt, have become also a target for the tuna industry. The whole Mediterranean Sea has become a tuna fishing ground without any refuge. With such a high-tech fishing fleet there's not much hope for left the species.
From June the 12 to the 18th, that is over the coming week, scientists are meeting in Madrid to share information about the state of the tuna population. We really hope they will act responsibly and come with strong recommendations to recover the species. We call on them to be cautious and we know most of them share our concerns. Bluefin tuna needs to have a chance to recover, and it has to be now.
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Comments
Hi Sebastian,
you correctly pinpoint that "The whole Mediterranean Sea has become a tuna fishing ground without any refuge." Modern tuna-purse-seiners are everywhere, including over all spawning areas. There are several solutions for preserving the stocks of bluefin-tunas, of which MARINE RESERVES including the breeding grounds of those tunas. Marine Reserves in international waters of the Mediterranean are very, very necessary - NOW !
Keep on the good fight - environmental justice is with us, definetely.
Posted by: Francois at June 12, 2006 11:24 AM
Gee, I wonder if those fishermen were thinking "have we fished off all the tuna?" Or do they bother to think at this late stage. Duh.
Posted by: zelda at June 14, 2006 9:50 AM
Here in Colombia people Dont even realise how bad the situation is, they even consider pack tuna as a primary basic food, PLUS is very sheap.
They dont notice THE LACK OF TUNA IN OUR OCEANS and considering that we have two oceans.
Posted by: blue moon at June 15, 2006 12:42 AM
when people talk about marine reserves as locking up parts of the sea, we need to remember that what it really means is re-creating the natural refuges that industrial fishing boats, sattelites, spotter planes and deep sea trawls have eliminated. Those areas that until recently could not be fished gave the oceans marine reserves. Now we need to create them by law.
Posted by: islandgirl at June 16, 2006 10:48 AM
slowly, but surely, our ocean creatures are depleting. why are so many people ignorant? is it so difficult to care?
Posted by: delphynus at June 16, 2006 5:45 PM
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