The delegations of various fishing nations might as well have been out surfing during last week's meetings of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Hawaii, because their positive contributions toward safeguarding the Pacific tuna stocks were just as absent. Most of the tuna found on supermarket shelves around the world comes from this region, and stocks have been struggling to meet the insane demand. There was, however, a silver lining in the dark clouds hanging over the meeting venue- the announcement by various supermarket chains that they intend to take responsibility for the tuna they sell by saying no thanks to the current tuna madness.
The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are also fed up with the current state of tuna affairs. Concerned about the future of the tuna, the PICs, that call these waters home, had proposed historic measures to close the international waters between their borders to all destructive tuna purse seine fishing but distant-water fishing nations including Japan, S. Korea, other Asian countries and the EU rejected this and other key proposals to cut fishing rates, combat pirate fishing and protect other at-risk species threatened by destructive tuna fishing methods. Ultimately this will mean less tuna on foreign shelves but more importantly, it means a loss of livelihood and unfair returns to the Pacific Islanders.
The PICs had already agreed to close 4.5 million square kms of international waters to purse seining, enforced through fishing license agreements, and they agreed to reduce fishing effort by 30%. They needed support from the distant water nations that, after overfishing tuna in other oceans, now send fleets of massive purse seiners and longliners to the region. But they apparently seem content to fish the region and themselves out of stock.
Luckily, various supermarket chains seem to be thinking a little longer term. Greenpeace is giving two thumbs up to German (Kaufland and Norma), Austrian (MPreis) and Australian (Aldi) retail chains that recently committed to switch to Pacific skipjack tuna caught without the use of wasteful and unsustainable Fish Aggregation Devices(FADs). The Pacific Island Countries have already initiated a three-month annual ban on FAD fishing. This was found to be effective in reducing the number of juvenile tunas caught, but in order to improve the state of the Pacific tuna populations, it must be extended year-round.
Greenpeace was at the meetings in Hawaii to send a strong message that time and tuna are running out. Greenpeace is campaigning for a more sustainable tuna fishing industry, which includes working with retailers and tuna companies across Canada, the Americas, Europe and Australia to increase the market share of sustainably-sourced tuna. In addition to fishing industry reform, Greenpeace is also campaigning for a global network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world’s oceans, both necessary steps to creating healthy, living oceans for future generations.
