Lee Crockett, who directs the U.S. Oceans program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, sent a compelling "Your Dot" piece on addressable problems with United States fishing regulations that are perpetuating wasteful catches of bluefin tuna on longlines set for other species. He notes that you can weigh in with a comment to the relevant agency until Friday. Here's his post:
Environmental and fishing communities have long been concerned about the massive waste of Atlantic bluefin tuna caught incidentally by surface longline fishermen targeting swordfish and yellowfin tuna. Fortunately, the public still has until January 10 to comment on proposed regulations to help avert this tragedy.
The issue came to a head in 2012 when surface longline vessels in this fishery caught, killed, and discarded overboard nearly a quarter of the United States' entire bluefin quota, an estimated 239.5 metric tons of dead Atlantic bluefin tuna. The worst part was that this waste, or bycatch, was completely preventable.
In August 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service issued proposed fishing regulations for Atlantic bluefin tuna that could help stop the waste of this remarkable yet severely depleted fish. The bad news is that the proposal does not go far enough and needs improvements to fully achieve its conservation potential.The most controversial part of the proposal is a large increase in the quota for the fishermen who use surface longlines, which can stretch 40 miles, carry more than 750 baited hooks, and float unattended for up to 18 hours. Their method of fishing has essentially been the problem. Our U.S. quota is set by an international management body, of which the United States is a member. N.O.A.A. then divides that quota among groups of commercial and recreational U.S. bluefin fishermen who use a variety of types of gear, including rod-and-reel, harpoons, and purse seines (nets).
Fishermen employing indiscriminate surface longlines also get a piece of the quota to cover their incidental catch of bluefin, although they are not allowed to directly target those fish. Yet N.O.A.A.'s proposed regulation would unfairly give surface longline fishermen as much as 191.4 additional metric tons of quota to make up for their waste, effectively denying these fish to bluefin tuna fishermen who use selective gear.
In short, N.O.A.A.'s solution to the incidental catch of bluefin tuna by surface longline fishermen is to allow them a larger share of the quota. That's not conservation, that's a giveaway.
Fortunately, a better approach lies within the agency's proposed regulations. N.O.A.A. recognizes that there are two hotspots for bluefin tuna bycatch. The first is in the Gulf of Mexico, the only known spawning area for the western population of these fish. The agency proposes to restrict indiscriminate surface longline fishing in this area during April and May to reduce bycatch. The second is an area off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where surface longline fishing would be off-limits for some fishing vessels, but not all, from December through April. Both are laudable proposals designed to protect the oldest and largest bluefin on their migration to the Gulf of Mexico and while they are there spawning.
But if N.O.A.A. really wants to stop the waste of bluefin tuna on surface longlines it needs to expand protections. First, the agency should extend the gear-restricted area to the entire Gulf of Mexico and this restriction should include the month of March. Second, the agency should not let any surface longline fishermen have access to the gear-restricted area off North Carolina from December through April. Finally, N.O.A.A. needs to keep its new proposed enforceable cap on the amount of bluefin tuna that can be caught on surface longlines to ensure that this sector stays within its quota.
By expanding these protections, N.O.A.A. would not need to proceed with the most controversial aspect of its proposed regulation, which is the quota reallocation to the surface longline fishery. The public has until January 10 to weigh in on this issue. Bringing back bluefin tuna to healthy population levels in order to create new fishing opportunities is a shared goal of environmentalists and fishermen. A surefire way to do that is to end the waste of bluefin tuna. Please add your voice to this issue by submitting an official comment.
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