(Reuters) – Representatives from 30 countries gather on Tuesday to look for ways to save stocks of rapidly-depleting tuna in the Indian Ocean as demand in Asia and the West increases for sushi and canned fish.
The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), which brings together coastal countries from Australia to Kenya, in addition to the main fishing regions of the European Union, met for almost five days to discuss the quotas for yellowfin tuna.
Environmentalists say hot water species are at risk of depletion, as overfishing poses other threats from climate change and pollution.
There is also corporate concern: British supermarkets Tesco and Co-op and Belgian retailer Colruyt last year pledged to stop buying yellowfin tuna from the Indian Ocean unless the UN mandated commission adopts a plan to rebuild stocks.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, for almost a decade, had the species on its “Red List”.
However, total global catches have increased by about a third, to almost 450,000 metric tons annually, according to the London-based Blue Marine Foundation advocacy group.
He estimates that yellowfin tuna stocks could “collapse” – meaning they will exceed the minimum size needed for recovery – in the next five years if catches are not reduced.
The French and Spanish fishing fleets capture most of the fish, using industrial methods such as the “purse seine”, with huge nets that usually catch yellowfin juveniles that have not yet started breeding.
‘DELAY CAN BE CATASTROPHIC’
Coastal nations want to limit fleets of waters far from Europe.
Kenya and Sri Lanka, for example, want more curbs on devices like fish aggregators: floating objects that attract tuna and other species to nets.
“They are the visitors,” said Will McCallum, head of the oceans for European fleets’ environmental group Greenpeace UK. “They are fishing at a much greater capacity than anyone else, and it is not a fair situation.”
The Maldives want yellowfin catches to be reduced by 15% from 2015 levels, when IOTC scientists first agreed that they were overfished.
The IOTC had recommended last year to cut the catch by 20% from 2014 levels, but came back in January, saying it was distorted by 2018 stock valuation projections.
Given that a new stock assessment will not be ready until the end of 2021, the commission may postpone further measures, according to the Blue Marine Foundation.
“For a stock that is at risk of collapse, this delay can be catastrophic,” the agency said in a statement.
The European Union proposes a total reduction in catches from almost 438,000 metric tons in 2019 to around 380,000.
The demand for yellowfin is growing, as its light meat is widely used in canned fish and sushi in North America, Europe and Asia. The global yellowfin market in 2018 was worth $ 15.8 billion, the second highest figure of the seven tuna species, according to a report by the world’s largest canned tuna company, the Thai Union Group PCL.
Greenpeace’s McCallum said the issue of overfishing stagnated during the COVID-19 pandemic and drastic action was needed now to prevent irrecoverable damage to the species.
(Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)