[release]WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Center for Biological Diversity today requested that the United States seek protection for Atlantic bluefin tuna under an international treaty that would ban cross-border trade of this imperiled fish. Listing bluefin under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the major international treaty on endangered species, would allow countries to shut down the black market that has fueled much of the tuna's dramatic decline.
[b]"Illegal fishing is a scourge on bluefin tuna that undermines any attempt to recover healthy population levels. Any hope of pulling bluefin tuna back from the brink of extinction depends on unprecedented global cooperation to reduce overfishing,"[/b] said Catherine Kilduff, a Center staff attorney Kilduff.
Listing bluefin tuna under CITES could also improve compliance with catch limits and documentation that are required by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which has failed to prevent bluefin tuna's unsustainable slaughter for more than four decades.
Compliance with catch levels is critical to preventing the extinction of Atlantic bluefin tuna in part because, in June, the National Marine Fisheries Service denied Endangered Species Act protection to the enormous, warm-blooded fish in response to a Center for Biological Diversity petition. [b]Since then Libyan vessels may have harvested bluefin tuna illegally, and Italian officials are investigating a huge, illegal fishing-and-trafficking operation targeting bluefin in the Mediterranean. Authorities say they've found more than 1,000 violations, including falsified fishing records and trading documents.[/b]
[b]"Unfortunately, too many view bluefin tuna as a high-priced sushi item rather than an imperiled ocean species that desperately needs help," Kilduff said "We simply have to have trade restrictions to curb the widespread exploitation that threatens the future of this magnificent species."[/b]
The next CITES meeting will occur in 2013. At the most recent meeting, [b]in March 2010, a proposal to list Atlantic bluefin tuna was overwhelming voted down despite U.S. support. Reportedly the Japanese delegation served bluefin tuna sushi at a party the night before the vote in order to sway countries against the ban.[/b] The next month, the Gulf of Mexico [b]Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred during prime western Atlantic bluefin tuna spawning season.[/b] In two years, when effects of the spill are better understood, the Fisheries Service will reconsider whether Atlantic bluefin tuna should be listed as endangered or threatened.
[b]Western Atlantic bluefin tuna do not cross the Atlantic but migrate from Gulf of Mexico nursery areas to rich feeding grounds off New England. Those bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean, however, traverse the ocean in a matter of weeks as early as age one. Overfishing in Europe means that fewer Mediterranean tuna reach U.S. waters.[/b]
[b]Since 1970, western Atlantic bluefin tuna have declined by more than 70 percent due to overfishing.[/b] In response to the decline of the bluefin, the Center last year launched a nationwide boycott of bluefin tuna. (Visit bluefinboycott.org for more information.) More than 25,000 people have joined the Center's campaign and pledged not to eat at restaurants serving bluefin tuna; dozens of chefs and owners of seafood and sushi restaurants have pledged not to sell bluefin.
For more information about the Center's campaign to save the Atlantic bluefin tuna, visit: [url]http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/fish/Atlanticbluefintuna/index.html[/url].[/release]
[url]http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=10481957302[/url]
This needs to happen. We either strictly enforce laws and regulations keeping the fishing sustainable or we have no other choice but to put up periodic moratoriums. If we want to be able to keep fishing we need to protect the populations of the species or they will go extinct. Fishing is not the same as farming. You cannot farm a fish like the Blue Fin Tuna. The only way we will be able to sustainably hunt this fish is if we protect it.
Why is tuna so sought after?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDhiPFIGljY[/media]
I'll support this.
The fact that I hate seafood may be a factor.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;31712603]The fact that I hate seafood may be a factor.[/QUOTE]
You're missing out, tuna is like the premium steak of the sea.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;31712603]I'll support this.
The fact that I hate seafood may be a factor.[/QUOTE]
Seafood is delicious, and as a human I will eat every fish to extinction
[QUOTE=Occlusion;31712671]You're missing out, tuna is like the premium steak of the sea.[/QUOTE]
I don't really eat steak either.
Plus, I'm allergic to shellfish, so that cuts out half the food from the ocean.
I've grown a bit bored of tuna myself..
[QUOTE=Desolategrunt;31712678]Seafood is delicious, and as a human I will eat every fish to extinction[/QUOTE]
[img]http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/002/cache/angler-fish_222_600x450.jpg[/img]
Yum.
"I don't like seafood, therefore nobody else should be able to eat it."
"I don't like seafood, therefore the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless."
Facepunch logic right here folks.
[QUOTE=ken188;31712815]"I don't like seafood, therefore nobody else should be able to eat it."
"I don't like seafood, therefore the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless."
Facepunch logic right here folks.[/QUOTE]
You have to think about this in the long run.
The current practices in place make sustained fishing impossible; unless someone does something about this the above mentioned will happen anyway and it will be permanent.
[QUOTE=ken188;31712815]"I don't like seafood, therefore nobody else should be able to eat it."
"I don't like seafood, therefore the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless."
Facepunch logic right here folks.[/QUOTE]
I didn't say no one should eat seafood. I stated that I did not, and I would support the protection of this tuna.
[QUOTE=ken188;31712815]"I don't like seafood, therefore nobody else should be able to eat it."
"I don't like seafood, therefore the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless."
Facepunch logic right here folks.[/QUOTE]
"I like seafood, why should I care that a species may go extinct due to my greed?"
[QUOTE=ken188;31712815]"I don't like seafood, therefore nobody else should be able to eat it."
"I don't like seafood, therefore the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless."
Facepunch logic right here folks.[/QUOTE]
Well you can either stop eating tuna for say... 15 years right now, then eat it for the rest of your life. OR you can eat tuna for another 15 years and then never eat it ever again because it ceases to exist.
[editline]13th August 2011[/editline]
Not to mention the fishermen "whose livelihoods depend on tuna should starve and be homeless" are guaranteed to be homeless and starving when the global fisheries collapse. Along with everyone else that depends on fisheries for a living. AKA a lot of people.
Good, any step towards ecological preservation is one which should be taken. People and companies need to stop thinking only of short term profit
[QUOTE=Dopey Trout;31714694]People and companies need to stop thinking only of short term profit[/QUOTE]
Easier said than done because that "short term profit" means people's lives and their careers. But I agree.
In Canada, we are now using safe fishing practices. Tuna fishing around the world has wiped out much of the population, but here in Atlantic Canada, we have a very sustainable tuna fishing industry.
It is interesting how they catch the bluefin tuna. My English teacher's son worked on board a fishing vessel that would catch bluefin tuna. In Canada there is a limit to how many a person or crew can catch each year.
Once they catch the tuna they slowly reel it in tiring it a bit. When the tuna comes up out of the water, they have to kill it so it does not damage the boat. The crew my English teacher's son was with used a shotgun.
[img]http://www.bigmarinefish.com/bluefin_tuna_1108_Nova_Scotia.jpg[/img]
That is the size of a bluefin tuna by the way.
Those fucking beautiful cans of shredded tuna, mixed with mayonnaise and thrown onto a bun with melted cheese OH MY GOD
[QUOTE=RoflKawpter;31715126]Those fucking beautiful cans of shredded tuna, mixed with mayonnaise and thrown onto a bun with melted cheese OH MY GOD[/QUOTE]
That's probably albacore or yellow-fin.
Much less majestic.
[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;31715052]In Canada, we are now using safe fishing practices. Tuna fishing around the world has wiped out much of the population, but here in Atlantic Canada, we have a very sustainable tuna fishing industry.[/QUOTE]
Last year Canada sided with Japan on the matter of whether or not they should be added to the CITES endangered species list. To be honest, sustainable isn't a word I would use when fishing any critically endangered species. There needs to be a global moratorium no matter how you look at it. People are just going to have to deal with not having blue fin sushi for a few years if they ever want to have it in the future. The thing with Blue Fin is fishermen in the Mediterranean hardly ever follow regulations. We can have all the laws in the world and the fish will still go extinct unless we make it illegal to fish it.
[editline]13th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Billiam;31715167]That's probably albacore or yellow-fin.
Much less majestic.[/QUOTE]
A lot less endangered also.
Bluefin tuna is delicious, so I would hate for it to go extinct.
And if it was more common It would be a lot less expensive.
I'd support a temporary ban on bluefin tuna.
[editline]13th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=RoflKawpter;31715126]Those fucking beautiful cans of shredded tuna, mixed with mayonnaise and thrown onto a bun with melted cheese OH MY GOD[/QUOTE]
That's definitely not bluefin tuna.
I love how the general public is so violently against whaling and dolphin hunting but really couldn't give a shit less about tuna even though tuna is in danger of going extinct while the minke whale and the bottle nosed dolphin are not.
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;31715471]Bluefin tuna is delicious, so I would hate for it to go extinct.
And if it was more common It would be a lot less expensive.
I'd support a temporary ban on bluefin tuna.
[editline]13th August 2011[/editline]
That's definitely not bluefin tuna.[/QUOTE]
Such is the economics of extinction.
[editline]13th August 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Rofl my Waff;31715520]I love how the general public is so violently against whaling and dolphin hunting but really couldn't give a shit less about tuna even though tuna is in danger of going extinct while the minke whale and the bottle nosed dolphin are not.[/QUOTE]
You know "dolphin-safe" tuna? It's not all true.
[url]http://www.allaboutwildlife.com/dolphins-whales/the-disturbing-facts-about-dolphin-safe-tuna/4298[/url]
[QUOTE=OvB;31715527]Such is the economics of extinction.[/QUOTE]
That's why panda meat is so god damned expensive. Worth every penny, though.
Well what do you expect people do not care except when it comes to satisfy something they want. Well I really do hope that the world can come to an agreement and not fish the Blue Fin Tuna for a few years.
Well this is what you get with a capitalistic society that really only cares for itself.
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