This week the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), an international treaty body charged with tuna, billfish and shark management for the western Pacific is meeting in Papeete, Tahiti. Like most fishery management meetings progress for conservation moves at a glacial pace. Scientists here, like everywhere else in the world, have been sounding the warning about ongoing overfishing, the depletion of both Yellowfin and Bigeye tuna populations and the need to take immediate action to rebuild these stocks.
It’s a very contentious situation as the world’s huge fishing interests simply don’t want to slow down their plunder – they’re still making boat loads of money and the small Pacific Island nations want a sustainable future. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that by the end of the meeting progress will be made in reducing fishing effort and at least some small steps toward sustainability are achieved.
In today’s session Japan gave a nod to shark conservation and also reiterated their concerns about a CITIES listing for any tuna species. On the shark issue during the discussion about adding Silky sharks to the list of species of concern deserving special attention Japan brought to the Commission’s attention the plight of Hammerhead sharks in this region. They asked and the Commission agreed to add Hammerheads to the list of sharks needing special consideration thus making data collection on Hammerheads a priority issue.
It’s not often Japan leads the discussion of needed conservation measures for any ocean animal they actively target. They did cite the high value of Hammerheads and their depleted status as their reason for speaking out about Hammerheads. I personally took this as a good sign of Japan’s changing attitude about their role in the future of Pacific fisheries.
The other interesting thing to come out of the Japanese delegation today was their expression of concern about the possibility of another tuna species qualifying for a CITIES listing. The Commission’s scientific committee had just finished their review of the stock status for the different tuna populations in the region where the Commission was informed that Yellowfin tuna population, in region 3, was only 10% of their unfished level.
Japan then referenced the low population level of Atlantic Bluefin tuna as qualifying for a CITIES listing and that the WCPFC needed to take action before Pacific Yellowfin were also proposed for a CITIES listing. It was very interesting to hear Japan cite the stock status of Alantic Bluefin tuna as meeting the criteria for listing on CITIES, because of low population levels and that this Commission can’t allow that to happen again. All I can say is, small steps are better than nothing, inspiring our Greenpeace team to keep on fighting for the Pacific ocean’s health and the island nations that depend on her.
