Bluefin Tuna Fisheries catch more than they bargained for WWF report says
A new WWF (The World Wide Fund for Nature) report has revealed that 1,000s of seabirds and significant numbers of sharks and marine turtles are being caught and killed each year in long-line fishing nets meant to capture the southern bluefin tuna.
Japan’s long-line southern bluefin tuna fleet, for example, killed between 6,000 and 9,000 seabirds per year in the 2001 and 2002 fishing seasons. About three-quarters were albatrosses and one-fifth petrels.
It is estimated that annual seabird deaths from all southern bluefin tuna fishing could be as high as 13,500, including some 10,000 albatrosses. Of the 22 species of albatrosses, 19 are classified as threatened with extinction, according to the World Conservation Union.
“Southern bluefin tuna long-line fleets are fishing blind, with little or no understanding of their devastating impact on threatened species,” says Dr Simon Cripps, Director of WWF’s Global Marine Programme.
“Responsible countries must urgently implement measures to dramatically reduce the death toll.”
The new report — Behind the Facade: A Decade of Inaction on Non-Target Species in Southern Bluefin Tuna Fisheries — exposes ten years of inaction by members of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), and calls for reform measures to be agreed at their upcoming annual meeting in Australia to stem the catch of endangered wildlife and reduce chronic overfishing.
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