Pacific Bluefin Tuna: NGO Wants it on the Endangered List, NMFS Offers Plan to Rebuild Stocks
SEAFOODNEWS.COM (SeafoodNews) By Peggy Parker - June 23, 2016
Pacific bluefin tuna is in trouble and both environmental groups and international managers are trying to save it, albiet from different approches. Earlier this week, an alliance of environmental organizations asked National Marine Fisheries Service to consider listing Pacific bluefin as an endangered species. Yesterday, the agency announced a proposed framework for rebuilding Pacific bluefin tuna stocks.
NMFS's long-term plan for rebuilding Pacific bluefin spans the Pacific and many international boundaries. It will be presented at the annual Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) meeting next week in La Jolla, CA.
While the 21 member countries of the IATTC will be negotiating catch limits, the scientific advice from IATTC's staff is to extend current catch limits in the eastern Pacific for another two years. But the environmental groups want to ban all removals, immediately.
A May 2016 stock assessment conducted by the...
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