Bluefin Tuna Article in National Geographic

[Hudson]

Wanna get sick to your stomach? Feel like getting frustrated and angry before you go to bed? Check out the story in the magazine this month. Explains how massive tuna ranching operations and ICCAT failures will lead to the inevitable collapse of the fishery. It's getting to the point now where prices of Buefin in Japan are tumbling from supply and the French and Spanish companies need to catch more and more to sustain profits. Japanese giants like Mitsubishi and Mitsui along with billions of subsidies from the EU form parternships with tuna farming companies like Fuentes and Sons to buy sea cages, tugs, seiners etc are taking DOUBLE the ICCAT quota! The Med fleet has 1,700 vessels and 314 seiners for tuna alone. Now Lybia has gotten involved over the past few years and the tuna farmers have stockpiled 20,000 tons of Bluefin in Japanese freezers -- still brings $400 million at $3,$4 a pound. Fuente's Lybian partnership involves Qaddafi's dirtball son who is making millions form this.

Will there be any left for my kids?

Just plain SICKENING!!!

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

Will there be any left for my kids?

Probably not the way things are headed.

[twofinbluna]

I havent read the article but all I can say is that I hope it spells out clearly that the US and Canada have bent over backwards the last 25 years to conserve and that the problem is in the eastern atlantic and mediterranean. Because if they dont make it obvious, all these enviros and others will continue to hammer on the already miniscule US fishery instead of doing what needs to be done-that is, get the EU and others over there to cut the shit.

Up until now all that happens when big articles like this come out on bluefin is that US fishermen (both rec and commercial)get more people trying to shut us all down.

Lets hope this article exposes to all those who is really causing the problem.

[fishpicker]

I hope now ya see why it is important for us to keep any and all ICAT quota.

[Hudson]

The article clearly states who's at fault. Stems from massive Japanese demand obviously so the large Japanese corporations are subsidising these tuna farms in Syria and the Med. Which in turn brings money into EU countries like France and Spain. And much like single companies like Omega Protein down in the Chesapeak -- French/Spainish partnerships like Fuentes and Sons are allowed to exploit the resource without much opposition.

[Seaker]

Yeah I have the same article and it's very clear who the rapist are. Imagine taking so many you loose the price by 50% then go out and double up the take to offset the price you yourself just lowered

These idiots don't care one bit about the fishery...just the P&L

Shark fin soup and sushi...who would have thunk

[pitch bait]

Lets send a sub over there and minus a few of those purse sainers.

[capt. jakeg]

Everyone sits around and points at the countries that are fishing them.... Why dont we turn the finger to the japanese for promoting and paying for yet another raping of the ocean? ICCAT has always been a joke and we are the only ones stupid enough to think their regulations are beneficial in any way. The only way I see that we could actually do anything about it is to get our government involved and impose heavy economic restrictions between the U.S. and Japan, Libya, and all other countries participating in catching over quotas, unless they not only agree to our conservation plans, but actively participate in upholding conservation measures. It's quite obvious that Japan has no respect for the conservation of the species and they will buy every single fish they can get their hands on, whether it was caught over quota or not. This is something we should be really pist about. These guys coming in here and flooding the markets makes it harder for our guys to make a living in it.

As far as sending our subs over there to sink their fishing boats, they'd just make more. The straights of Gilbraltar aren't that wide, there's gotta be some kind of way of just preventing the fish from entering the med using nets, or sonic devices or something. It seems that all the countries along the med are the main players in exceeding quotas. Why not just keep the fish from getting to them?

[Tom K]

Hudson:
I got half way through the article and stopped. Sickening.

Jake:
Good point. But who would take the initiative and spend the bucks to prevent the BFT from passing through the Straights? Surely not us. All we do is point the finger.

[lazyfatass247]

hahahah sorry man, that is just not going to work. The U.S. will not place restrictions on the Japanese, ever hear of Boeing the Japanese are manufacturing 45% of that airplane, Boeing has lots of political power, the fish don’t, and they also have a tax loop hole. That will not happen ever. The only to true way to stop this problem is to stop the demand. The reason that the government in all its wisdom will not touch this subject is that we need these counties support, allies. As a fisherman I hate to say this but winning the war against global commercial fishing is not on the governments top 5 list. This is a problem that is huge. We can all point the figure at this guy and that, or this country but frankly we all made this mess. The only way I see to tackle this problem is to take the ships or the company, and make them have to report to some agency or some kind, but the problem I see with this is that, it will be stuck in some kind of bureaucratic nightmare. Furthermore, I have never caught a giant and im 17 I would like to in future. But I really don’t see how. We could all so try and take those subsidies out of the equation and see how long they can survive. I don't think they can for long. As long as theirs a demand the blue fin will be killed.