One important way that organizations and governments are trying to protect the bluefin tuna is with quotas. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which was formed in 1966 out of fear of tuna extinction, created an invisible “management line” in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to help direct catch limits, or quotas. However, the commission ignored scientists and set quotas at double the recommended level. Several years later, when catches declined significantly because of tuna population declines and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora threatened to list tuna, the commission finally reduced quotas to sustainable levels, although a little too late. To make the situation even more ridiculous, a consultant was hired a few years later by exporters of tuna who, not surprisingly, determined no management changes were needed, affected consecutive quota increases, and blamed resulting population declines on environmental changes. This brings us nearly to the present, where quotas are meaningless because the amount of bluefin tuna available isn’t even enough to reach the quotas.
One brilliant idea has been proposed to save the tuna’s future. The idea calls for a 5-year moratorium of all bluefin tuna fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, their spawning grounds, each year during the spawning season; January through June. This would ensure that maximum spawning occurs over a long enough period to allow for significant population recovery. Imagine the moratorium being repeated every 15 or 20 years and the bluefin tuna responding so well that their status is no longer a problem. With some hard work, raising awareness, and a few more classes devoted to the cause, I believe these changes are possible.
Safina, Carl, and Dane H. Klinger. "Collapse of Bluefin Tuna in the Western Atlantic." Conservation Biology 22.2 (2008): 243-46. EBSCO Host. Society for Conservation Biology, 2008. Web. 2 Feb. 2010.
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