U.S. Backs Ban For Bluefin Tuna Trade

While currently leaving whales to flounder, the U.S. this week stepped up to the plate for tuna, supporting a proposed ban on international trade for Atlantic Bluefin, the most endangered of all tuna populations.

It can be difficult even to comprehend the number of bluefin that are yanked out of the sea everyday: Chris Jordan's remarkable artwork, pictured, helps — see close-ups on his website. There are 20,500 fish in the image: That's the number caught worldwide every fifteen minutes.

What drives this plunder? A growing and insatiable appetite for sushi, mostly in Japan but rapidly spreading worldwide. Bluefin are one of the most valued animals on the planet; a 512-pounder recently sold for $176,000 at a Tokyo fish market. And that's only a third of their potential full size. With prices that high, it pays to catch the last fish.

Bluefin tuna are indeed special, exceptional in size, speed (bursts over 40mph), endurance, and yes, in taste (so I am told). Their remarkable ability to generate heat, a trait few fish have evolved, allows them to swim powerfully through frigid waters across entire ocean basins. And all that swimming creates muscles and fat that is revered above all other sushi in the world. But their amazing stamina, like the fatal flaw in a Greek tragedy, is causing them to lose their race for survival.

Long ago abandoned by their protectors—the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas—barely 1 in 5 of these aquatic gladiators have survived the last three decades of onslaught by global fishing fleets. That's what happens when managers allow 50 percent higher catches than scientists recommend, fishermen get away with catching three times more than the inflated quota allows, and policies allow fishermen in their breeding grounds. ICCAT's track record is truly abysmal, right up there with Newfoundland's now defunct cod fishery. Dr. Carl Safina, an early advocate for blue conservation, appropriately dubbed the group "the International Conspiracy to Catch All Tuna."

But now there is hope that reason might finally trump greed in the realm of the giant bluefin. Atlantic Bluefin numbers have fallen so dangerously low they qualify for an international trade ban under Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species. Monaco will propose the ban at the upcoming meeting at the end of this month. America's backing is critical to securing the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass the ban.

Stopping international trade will not stop fishing for bluefins. Sushi fans can still clamor for this endangered species where bluefin are locally caught. And there is Japan. Sigh. Adding to dolphin slaughter we can now include arrogant, stubborn defiance of international treaties as part of Japan's M.O.

But the ban will prevent foreign countries from legally shipping Atlantic bluefin to Tokyo. Without hundred-thousand dollar incentives, Atlantic bluefin become too costly to fish because there are simply too few to find. But more challenges remain, from making sure that Atlantic bluefin simply labeled "Pacific Bluefin" to overhauling the entire ICCAT management system to create a program that will help stocks recover. But the ban is a necessary first step. Now, if only we could get our government to take the same approach with whaling, we'd really have something to celebrate.

Photo credit: Chris Jordan

Photo caption: By Chris Jordan, made from nineteen watercolor paintings by Sarah Waller. Depicts 20,500 tuna, the average number of tuna fished from the world's oceans every fifteen minutes