The Last Tuna in the Sea

April 25, 2009

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Last week the World Wildlife Fund released a report warning that blue fin tuna – one of the most popular fishes we know, especially among sushi lovers – will be completely fished out around the globe in the next three years. I read its report early in the day and later that night, floating off the coast of Mozambique, watched a stunning video with an Indian Ocean sailor and guide – Guy Esparon – showing in no uncertain terms exactly why tuna is not long for this ocean.

A Seychelles-born guide and naturalist who has sailed around the world on every imaginable craft and along the way become an adopted-son of the aboriginals in western Australia, Guy is truly a man of the sea. I watched his eyes well up as the video images played, of half-ton tuna being snared in one-mile-long, 600-foot tall nets strung behind seiners. Millions of tons of blue fin are taken each year from the Indian Ocean alone, generating $700 million. It’s big business, but one that would now seem to be short-lived if the WWF predictions are correct.

Here’s the reports conclusion: “Over fishing will wipe out the breeding population of Atlantic blue fin tuna, one of the ocean’s largest and fastest predators, in three years unless catches are dramatically reduced.” The report was released on the eve of the European fishing fleets starting the two-month Mediterranean season.

“For years people have been asking when the collapse of this fishery will happen, and now we have the answer,” said Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. The fish, which can accelerate faster than a sports car, are a favorite of sushi lovers. Demand from Japan has triggered an explosion in the size of the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean fleets over the past decade and many of those boats use illegal spotter planes to track the warm-blooded tuna.

“Blue fin tuna is collapsing as we speak and yet the fishery will kick off again for business as usual. It is absurd and inexcusable to open a fishing season when stocks of the target species are collapsing,” added Tudela.

The WWF report cited data showing the average size of mature tunas has more than halved since the 1990s, which has had a disproportionately high impact since bigger fish produced many more offspring. It concludes that the only way the blue fin can be saved is by a complete halt to fishing in May and June as the fish rush through the Straits of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean.

Standing at the edge of the Indian Ocean with Guy on a dark, dark night it’s hard to imagine the last blue fin may soon be caught, perhaps not far from where we stand. But it won’t be too surprising if it happens. We are a rapacious species, with an increasingly heavy demand for fish of all stripes. While it would be sad if the blue fin were wiped out, it will not come as a big surprise. And it won’t be the last fish species to disappear in our lifetime.