Greenpeace Demands US Leadership in Protecting Pacific Tuna

Greenpeace Demands US Leadership in Protecting Pacific Tuna

Activists Hang Banner at Honolulu’s Aloha Tower Urging Action at Fisheries Summit

Honolulu, December 5, 2010 - Greenpeace today hung a banner at Honolulu’s Aloha tower reading “WCPFC: Don’t Let Time Run Out on Tuna.”

The group is urging the US to support the proposal by Pacific nations to close off the four pockets of international waters including the eastern high seas area to purse seine fishing as science shows the Pacific region’s tuna stocks are threatened by massive overfishing. (1) The bold message was delivered on the eve of the seventh annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) taking place in Honolulu this week.

“Time and tuna are running out and the livelihood of Pacific Island countries is at stake. It is crucial the WCPFC avoids repeating the failures of other tuna management meetings this year to create sustainable fisheries and healthy oceans,” said Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans campaigner.

Despite calls from scientists to reduce catches since 2001, record catches have been consecutively hauled out of the Pacific in the last three years.

“Greenpeace is demanding the US and other fishing nations back the proposal by Pacific Island Countries to close large areas of international waters in the Pacific to purse seine fishing to reverse the disastrous impacts of overfishing and illegal pirate fishing on the region’s troubled bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks and the people dependent on them,” said Mr Toribau.

Fleet capacity is growing at an exponential rate and fishing methods are more efficient than ever in finding and capturing tuna. Wasteful fishing methods such as the use of fish aggregation devices (FADs) (2) are largely to blame.

“The out-of-control use of FADs is resulting in the needless wasting of sharks, turtles and juvenile tuna and rendering the once plentiful skipjack fisheries unsustainable. This fishing method must be banned if there is to be a tuna industry able to provide the Pacific region with jobs in the years to come,” continues Mr Toribau.

Since industrial fishing began nearly sixty years ago, nearly 90% of the world’s large fish – such as tuna and swordfish – have been taken from our oceans. If current practices continue unchecked, the fishing industry will literally fish itself out of existence. The recent failing of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to prevent the near-certain collapse of the Atlantic bluefin tuna proves once again the undue influence of the fishing lobby on oceans management.

“More than half of the world’s tuna is fished from the Pacific, and negotiators here in Honolulu have one of the last chances to get oceans management right,” added Mr Toribau. “The world, including the Pacific region, needs living oceans to survive and the best way to restore our oceans to health is by creating more marine reserves – wildlife parks at sea. If this meeting fails to reduce fishing and create more marine reserves, it’s the end for Pacific tuna and the livelihoods of people it supports.”

Greenpeace is campaigning for a sustainable fishing industry and a global network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world’s oceans as the necessary steps to leaving future generations with oceans able to sustain life on earth.
For more information about Greenpeace’s efforts at the WCPFC, please visit http://www.greenpeace.org/international/wcpfc

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