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United in Conservation 

Dr. Russell Nelson

Dr. Russell Nelson, CCA's consultant to the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, is a 25-year veteran of marine fisheries management and research. His background in fish population dynamics gives CCA an expert capable of working in the management process from the initial stock assessment through final regulatory action by the Council.

Nelson has a doctorate in Marine Fisheries Ecology from North Carolina State University and served as a research biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service until he became the chief scientist and then executive director of Florida's fledgling Marine Fisheries Commission in 1986. During his tenure, tough legal and political battles with commercial interests did not keep Florida from enacting sweeping conservation-based regulations to protect and restore previously overfished stocks of red drum, Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, spotted seatrout, snook, tarpon, snappers, groupers, and bonefish. In the 1990s, Florida led the nation in implementing requirements for sea turtle and finfish bycatch reduction devices in shrimp trawls.

Nelson spent 14 years as a member of both the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Fisheries Management Councils and has more than 15 years of experience with the U.S. Advisory Council and delegation to the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. He has worked on the development of management plans for more than 300 species of marine life at the state, national and international levels.

In 2000, Nelson founded an international fisheries consulting group specializing in conservation science and advocacy for recreational fishing interests. In addition to his work with CCA, he has led conservation efforts for The Billfish Foundation and organizations on the U.S. West Coast as well as in Mexico, Central America and Australia.

Bluefin Tuna

Meeting during March in Doha, Qatar, the members nations of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) defeated an attempt by Monaco, the United States, Norway, the European Union (EU) and other nations to prohibit international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, an extremely valuable sushi ingredient.

A listing by CITES would have prohibited all international trade (i.e. exports to Japan) while allowing recreational and commercial harvest in national waters. Heavy pressure from Japan overcame the arguments of most international conservation organizations and scientists from the U.S and EU that the eastern Atlantic stock of bluefin is extremely overfished and potentially facing a collapse in the face of mismanagement by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Extreme overfishing and illegal harvest has recently exceeded even the generous annual quotas set by ICCAT (A Passing of Giants, July/August 2008 TIDE).

The Japanese delegation contended that the present management system was working and could adequately manage a recovery of the stock. At a CITES meeting dominated by economic interests, polar bears and several threatened shark species were also denied new protection from trade. 
 

Stock declines will continue

Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean have declined in excess of 80 percent over the past 20 years and spawning potential in the Mediterranean is severely threatened. Recent scientific investigations have revealed that bluefin catches off the U.S. now consist of more than 50 percent of fish from the eastern Atlantic stock. The western stock, which spawns only in the Gulf of Mexico, was heavily fished by purse seines targeting juveniles for canneries 40 years ago, and although constrained by severe annual quotas for 20 years, shows no real sign of recovery to pre-1980 levels.

The revealed linkage between east and west has created a sense of alarm for U.S. anglers who enjoy pursuing these giant predators that thrilled the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Zane Gray and others during the 1950s and 1960s. Without a recovery of the rapidly disappearing eastern stock, U.S. anglers face a bleak future. The current regulations put in place by ICCAT last November will not increase the spawning stock in the east. Given past history, ICCAT is quite likely to react to the CITES vote by again liberalizing future catch restraints. The future for bluefin across the entire Atlantic seems dire.

Can we save the western Atlantic stock?

U.S. anglers may face future threats to fishing opportunities for bluefin. Continued declines in the east will reduce the flow of eastern fish to our waters. The failure to secure a CTIES listing this year may spur some marine conservation organizations to pursue more drastic measures here in the U.S. An attempt to list bluefin under the Endangered Species Act is not to be dismissed. Strong unilateral action by the U.S. to protect the remaining western spawning stock in the Gulf of Mexico has become an absolute necessity.

While no targeted fishing for bluefin is allowed in the Gulf, there is a substantial take and allowed bycatch retention in the Gulf yellowfin tuna longline fishery. This gear also takes large numbers of billfish, sharks and sea turtles. The U.S. can no longer allow the loss of our dwindling spawning stock in the Gulf. The Highly Migratory Species Office of our National Marine Fisheries Service must immediately take action to shut down the Gulf pelagic longline fishery and protect what we can only hope is not the last of the western giant tuna.

CCA News

CCA Calls for CITES Listing on Bluefin Tuna - Comments submitted to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Jan.4, 2010
American fishermen and markets are not responsible for driving bluefin tuna to the edge of extinction, but this country needs to lead the solution to salvage what is left and set it on a road to recovery. Under an Appendix 1 listing, American commercial fishermen will be allowed to market bluefin domestically and anglers will be able to continue fishing within the proscribed quotas and bag limits. We encourage the Department of Interior to proceed with the necessary course of action to list the Atlantic bluefin on Appendix I to CITES and prohibit the international trade in bluefin.

Click here for a fact sheet on a CITES listing for bluefin tuna

Letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce to CCA - Nov. 2, 2009

Letter from the U.S. Department of Interior to CCA - Oct. 27, 2009

CCA commends U.S. decision on bluefin tuna - Oct. 15, 2009
“This is an important step in the right direction, but much work remains to ensure a recovery for bluefin,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “I am thrilled to see the Administration send a clear message to the international community that it cannot continue its failed history of management for such an important species. The conservation of bluefin tuna has to be addressed.”

NOAA Announcement - Oct. 14, 2009         
The United States today announced that it will seek the strongest possible   management for the conservation of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a fish which is in serious trouble.  This action has two components. First, we are sending a clear and definitive statement to the international community that the status quo is not acceptable. Second, the United States strongly supports Monaco’s proposal to list Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to prohibit international trade of the species.

Conservationists call for U.S. action to save bluefin tuna - Sept. 25, 2009
Citing the failure of the international community to rein in harvest of bluefin tuna, Coastal Conservation Association is urging the United States to proceed with an effort to list the Atlantic bluefin on Appendix I to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and prohibit the international trade in bluefin.

Letter from CCA Chairman to U.S. Secretaries of Interior, Commerce - Sept. 24, 2009
It is time for the United States to demonstrate some leadership and insist that all international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna be halted, while hope for a recovery still remains.

A Passing of Giants? - TIDE, Jul/Aug 2008
After decades of declining abundance, which saw bluefin abandon areas that had long supported viable and often heavily-prosecuted fisheries, it didn’t take a biologist to recognize that the species was in trouble and that some significant changes in management were needed.
However, the biological, economic and political aspects of management were, individually and in the aggregate, so intricate and far-reaching that today, 40 years after the management efforts began, we are little closer to reaching a solution than we were when problems first surfaced. The bluefin population has suffered terribly in the interim.

Not Such a Pretty Picture - TIDE, Jul/Aug 2008
“In some ways, tuna are the underwater photographer's ultimate trophy. A good shot of these fast-moving, amazing animals is very difficult to obtain,” he says. “I think we've seen the last of the bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean – and therefore the East Coast – and they are not coming back. This is not a ‘natural cycle.’
“Sorry if the above offends you, but I am saying it like I see it,” he concluded in his email from the Indian Ocean.

Outlook Grim for Bluefin Tuna - TIDE, Jan/Feb 2008
To say that this year’s meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) was a disappointment would be a vast understatement. Faced with a continued overharvest of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, ICCAT chose to do nothing and hide behind a rebuilding plan that won’t rebuild and a compliance plan that won’t generate compliance.  

Bluefin Tuna News