MEDITERRANEAN LOSING WILD BFT FOREVER OVER GREED - A MUST READ -

[Old Salty]

Long, but IT IS A MUST READ to ALL you BFT Sportfishermen. Spells out what is going on very well. If you read this and then watch the "Tuna Wranglers" on discovery channel it will make more sense.
Also here is a link to National Geographics
"The Mediterranean Losing its Wild BFT Forever"

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/n...re1/index.html

(Sorry if this was already posted):
But this really ticks me off to see this.
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT THIS ON AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL!!!!!
Tuna Wars United Kingdom, August 7, 07


The ruthless tuna pirates who are driving these majestic creatures to extinction

By Andrew Malone - Published in the UK’s Daily Mail
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The pilot had spotted something. Banking sharply to the right anddiving to around 500ft above the Mediterranean, his relaxed air changedas he flew the two-seater Cessna towards what looked like a giantocean-going animal pen.

Swooping as low as possible, the pilot, a veteran of countless flightsover international waters, opens the aircraft window and shouts:“There! Look! Below you! Amazing! It’s absolutely bloody amazing...”

Peering through the wind and haze, I could make out massive, muscular black shapes swimming in fast, powerful circles.

Sleeping with the fishes: Illegal bluefin tuna ranching has links with the Mafia.

And the occasional glint of brilliant silver as one of the giants twisted and turned, flashing its huge belly beneath the waves.

Coralled inside a giant net attached to orange floats, which were beingtossed around by a fierce wind off the Maltese coast, these creatureswere bluefin tuna - awesome, highly-strung predators regarded as one ofthe great wonders of the oceanic world.

Capable of accelerating faster than a Porsche and weighing more than aton, the bluefin had recently streamed from the Atlantic into theMediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, following ancientmigration routes to their traditional spawning grounds off the NorthAfrican coast.

But these bluefin hadn’t made it. After rising to the surface to breedand let the richer, warmer waters incubate their fertilized eggs,aircraft patrolling the seas had noticed the tell-tale signs of adisturbance.

Operating illegally from airfields in Malta, Libya and Croatia, theserogue pilots call in the coordinates of the tuna shoals to the captainsof more than 200 hi-tech boats waiting below.

Whoever gets to the tuna first, claims the biggest prize in fishinghistory. For this is no ordinary catch. Astonishingly, each haul can beworth up to £10 million.

Small wonder, then, that these traditional fishing grounds have becomesomething akin to a battle zone with allegations of Mafia involvement,gunfights between fishermen and stories of rival boats ramming eachothers’ nets.

As we shall see, there are suggestions that the tuna boats are involved in people-smuggling from Africa.

There are environmental concerns, too. Investigators claim that £ 2.5billion of tuna has been illegally caught in a three-year period,decimating wild stocks.

So what is the truth about this decidedly murky business?

Revered throughout the ages and lauded in Mediterranean art, folkloreand worship, the bluefin tuna - or mighty Thunnus thynnus - spottedfrom our aircraft will not been dispatched immediately for market.

Although the water will turn red with their blood soon enough.

After being captured by giant “purse-seine” nets wider than a footballpitch, the fish are transferred into cages and towed by tugs at a speedof one nautical mile an hour.

Their destination? Controversial new offshore tuna “ranches”, which arespringing up throughout the Mediterranean to cater for our increasingappetite for fresh tuna steaks and sushi.

Only at the end of October, when they are big enough to command topprices at restaurants in London, New York, Paris and Tokyo, will thetuna be herded into a corner of the net and shot in the head, beforebeing carefully butchered and exported.

To the horror of environmentalists and the jubilation of a newgeneration of “tuna millionaires”, this controversial method of“ranching” - where wild fish are caught alive and raised by “farmers” -is in full flight throughout the Mediterranean this summer.

Backed by millions of pounds in EU grants, the supporters of tunaranching claim that it is an evolutionary breakthrough for humanity -as potentially life-changing as our first successful attempts todomesticate wild animals thousands of years ago.

For while some species of fish - such as salmon - can be hatched fromeggs in the laboratory and raised on special farms dotted aroundestuaries and lochs of Britain and abroad, tuna cannot be artificiallyreared.

They have to be caught in the wild.

Tuna ranching has made it possible to gather huge numbers of adolescentfish, drag them hundreds of miles across the seas, and then fatten themup by hand on the “ranches” to increase their value and ensure aregular supply for the international markets.

For the moment, these ranchers are supposed to limit themselves tocatching 29,000 tons a year in order to help conserve wild stocks.That’s the legal quota - but environmentalists claim the true figure isalmost double.

Groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as well asleading maritime scientists, now fear that ranching will spell the endfor bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean - and that, when they die outwithin a matter of years, the fragile eco-systems of the sea will bedamaged for ever.

The row over bluefin, which is expected to intensify next month with aflurry of specialist reports predicting the extinction of the species,also poses questions about the ethical choices all consumersincreasingly have to make.

Tuna fishermen have already been criticized for using inhumane lures onlong lines, which seabirds like the rare albatross mistake for fish andthen drown after being hooked through the beak.

All this raises the question of whether we should even be eating tuna at all.

Environmental experts think not. Calling for an international boycottof bluefin tuna as well as the immediate suspension of tuna ranchingactivities, they have branded the new tuna fishermen “pirates”.

They say they are breaking quotas and illegally plundering thousands of tons of fish - many of them undersize and immature.

“The time to act is now - or it will be too late,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, WWF Mediterranean Head of Fisheries.

“Bluefin tuna is near ecological and commercial extinction. The stockin the past few years has deteriorated so much that only measures toprotect both juvenile and adult fish have the potential to initiaterecovery.”

Wary of these claims of ecological catastrophe and reeling fromallegations of criminal involvement, tuna ranching is certainly aparanoid world.

A dozen requests by the Daily Mail to visit ranches were either ignoredor declined. It’s an industry surrounded by secrecy and fear.

In Malta last week, where local businessmen working with Japanese,Korean and Spanish partners are at the forefront of the tunarevolution, one fisherman would only agree to meet me incognito at achurch in Valletta, the capital of the former British colony and RoyalNavy fortress.

“It’s like the Mob,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“This is a small island. If people find out I am talking to you, Idon’t know what will happen. This is big money you are talking about. Alot is at stake. They don’t want people to realize what goes on out atsea.”

Listing examples where quotas had been flouted, fish illegally dumpedand bribes paid to local fisheries’ officials, the source also revealedthat certain unscrupulous skippers had taken cash in return for lettingillegal African refugees swim out to the cages and be towed intoEuropean ports, hidden among tuna.

But for Joe and Saviour Caruana, a father-and-son team of Maltesefishermen, the invention of tuna ranching, which they carry outlegally, has saved them.

The family business was about to go bankrupt when, in 2000, Joe firstheard stories about the vast sums to be made from ranching.

It was in Port Lincoln, a small, depressed fishing community inSouthern Australia, that the tuna-ranching business was pioneered.

Introduced as an experiment in the late 1990s, its success was instantaneous, with demand from Japanese markets overwhelming.

By last year, less than a decade after starting, Port Lincoln had 1,300tuna farms - and the highest number of millionaires anywhere in theSouthern Hemisphere.

Once poverty-stricken, the town is now dotted with opulent villas, upmarket restaurants and boutique shops.

Now the Caruana family hope to copy that success in the Mediterranean.Today, two kilometers out at sea, they have a stock of caged fish worth£5 million, waiting to get fat enough for market.

“We are very nervous,” said Joe Caruana, who has already sold hisentire stock of this year's tuna to a Japanese multinational - beforehe had even caught them.

“A lot of bad things get said about tuna ranching, but we have gotnothing to hide. You can see everything. Everything is business - andit would be very bad for our business if we did anything to damage ourstocks.”

To prove his point, Mr. Caruana made me an offer that I could notrefuse: the chance to swim with the fishes. “Come and see foryourself,” he said. “Our fish are clean, well looked after andwell-fed.”

“These fish are very important to us. We are saving the tuna bycatching them alive. Otherwise, they would just be killed anddestroyed.”

After being taken by boat to massive nets moored off the south of theisland, I lowered myself into the water where the biggest fish werebeing whipped into a frenzy by the release of thousands of freshmackerel that are fed to them by the Caruanas - three times a day.

Tuna are fortunate to eat once a week in the wild.

It’s easy to see why marine enthusiasts claim that, if these fish werenot hidden beneath the waves, they would be a protected species andranked as a spectacle on a par with elephants, leopards and rhino ifthey lived on land.

They were a glorious spectacle - soaring past me at speeds of up to40mph were tuna 10ft long and 5ft wide. Their agility was breathtaking.

“Don’t worry. They won’t crash into you,” said Saviour. “They haveamazing navigation systems. They locate prey with their sonar, butclose in using their eyes.”

In the waters around me, which were littered with floating scales and afishy-smelling slick, the biggest tuna weighed 1,000lb. Selling forabout £12 a kilo, there was £1 million worth of fish in each cage.

So valuable is the stock that they are looked after round-the-clock bydivers. Some ranchers also station armed guards on boats nearby, toscare off tuna rustlers and environmental activists intent on releasingthem back into the wild.

Joe Caruana, who employs 60 people, is scathing about the environmental groups who want to put him out of business.

“Where do these green people get their boats with big engines and themoney for all their specialists and their reports?” he asked.

“They’re in business, like the rest of us, and they’re attacking us tomake sure their backers know they are busy earning their money.”

His son, Saviour, 24, who is studying for a PhD in marine biology atStirling University, accepted there are unscrupulous people in theranching business. He revealed how one notorious captain illegallykilled 120 tons of tuna a couple of weeks ago after discovering a faultwith his cages. He preferred the fish to die rather than sell them toanother rival boat equipped with a cage. But Saviour insists his familyoperate ethically.

“Yes, there are problems and the stocks of fish are probably gettingexhausted. But most of the things you hear are exaggerated. We need toprovide high-quality, well-kept fish and that’s what we do.”

Most casualties occur when the fish are caught by the boats after beinglocated by aircraft. Like racehorses, the tuna are highly agile andintelligent, but suffer greatly from stress caused by any sudden changein their environment.

To ensure the tuna do not get frightened, which can ruin the fleshthrough the secretion of stress hormones, the nets are towed from thehunting grounds at slow speeds in an attempt to minimize losses.

The towing stage can take up to a month, but the crews keep busy.Divers plunge into the moving cages every couple of hours, checking fordead fish or for dolphins, porpoises, whales, turtles and sharks whichget tangled up in the nets.

Predators, including great white sharks, are attracted by the blood if the dead are not quickly removed.

Fishermen from many countries are now getting in on the act. Unaffectedby EU regulations, monitors and quotas, Libya is the latest, with localMaltese media reports claiming that Colonel Gaddafi’s son is overseeingthe country's move into tuna ranching, a charge he denies.

All this, say environmentalists, has been a disaster for theMediterranean’s ecosystem, decimating stocks not only of tuna, but ofother species that must be harvested to feed them: the tuna need 25kilos of fish to gain just one kilo in weight. But Joe Caruana snortswith derision.

“These tuna would have to eat fish anyway, we’re not doing anythingthey wouldn’t be doing in the wild. All these things get exaggerated.”

“Besides, beef and chicken are often reared on fish meal. Why don’t yousay we shouldn’t eat meat because of damage to the fish stock?”

One thing is certain: the tuna in Joseph and Saviour’s cages off Maltawill die soon. Divers will enter the water with harpoon guns and herdthe giant fish into a corner to be dispatched.

Those who can make a “clean” shot are paid the highest rates (the fleshof tuna taints and becomes worthless if the fish is not killedquickly). And so 600 more bluefin will be gone from the Med for good.

With some prime specimens fetching up to £30,000 each, the harvest willhelp Mr. Caruana become one of the new tuna-ranching barons of the Med.

But at what price for this most glorious species?

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT THIS ON AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL!
DONT JUST SIT BACK AND READ IT!

Long Live the BFT of International Waters!

[knock down]

What can be done to make our voices heard I can't imagine our oceans without Giants After the GBFT are wiped out which species is next? I wouldn't be surprised to hear about people taking matters into thier own hands , after all if the goverments of the world would let this happen , What good are they to us anyhow?????? I would like to think , if the Broadbills could make a comeback (and so far be protected off the FLA coast) well it only seems that given a fair chance(world wide) our GBFT stocks could rebuild with time!This situation should have never gotten to this point! How do we turn it around , or can we Take care & Tight lines to everyone out there!!!!

[Tuna Taxi]

It's a good article if you are on the side of the fish....and I am. Unfortunately, it was written in such an inflamatory and dramatic manner that it will be very quickly dismissed as hype. I'm a big fan of factual, intellectual, and even scientific discussions, but when I read articles like this I get tired of having to decide what is crap and what is fact.

I think an intellectual discussion of how tuna ranching cannot be equated to salmon farming and the like would do much more for the cause. Hyping up an article with claims of Mafia Involvement, Gun Fights, Boat Rammings, Libyan State-Sponsored Overharvesting, removing matress tags, changing lanes without signaling, and running with scissors only gives your opposition fuel to argue that you are short on fact and long on drama.

The real issue is that the management model we have now cannot keep up with the changing fishing tactics and the need for rapid changes to management strategies. Too many nations are involved, and you cannot hold striped bass and swordfish and other such success stories up as examples to nations who don't know what those fish are. All they care about are the BFT, and what they think their right is to fish for them. It's sad to watch, because the US will never lead the charge on this because the european contries involved have been fishing for these fish before we were colinies and they couldn't care less what we think should be done to save the fishery.

Why don't we drop bombs on these guys just like we do other "threats to US interests?"

[tunacity]

http://www.joinrfa.org/

We can't expect to win the game until our team fields a side.

On one hand, we have preservationists who go for the hyperbole and on the other hand we have our government whose clear intent is to manage fisheries as an industry (i.e. could care less about sport fishermen).

Membership costs less than your bar tab after a good day on the water...

We have limited resources and priorities in the international arena. If we want our voice to be heard, we must demand it. Otherwise, our politicians will spend their political capital elsewhere.

When the hue and cry is loud enough, our government will act. Locally and internationally.

Don't forget to kick your two cents in to the guys who work to make sure your voice is listened to by the people who can actually do something to help.

[rarhomes]

This is not about the U.S. interest. It's world wide, all the friggin oceans all the BFT.

Get it.


Capt. Rick

[Old Salty]

Hi,

I'm a fisherman, my love for the ocean is unconditional.
Its a miracle place with creatures that always amaze me.
It is a place "mother nature" created. Lets keep it that way
so our kids - kids have the chance to land a big BFT someday.
Thats ALL, is there anything wrong with thinking that way?

I'm writing fact here, please read the National Geographic article
I put a link to. I will send these articles to certain people in the
Political World & National TV stations who need to see them if needed
and there allegations. But I'm pretty sure if National Geograhic has
got it the politicians already know about it. Maybe they'll do something
about it, or they'll just blow it off until the last minute AND SAY HOW
DID THIS HAPPEN. Why wasn't something done sooner. If we just
sit back and watch this happen & not speak up.
This will & is going to affect the entire BFT Fishery Worldwide, be it
Commercial or Sport it wont matter.
For those of you that know some places where this needs to go,
PM us an address or web site/email. We'll add it to the places we know of
and send this where it needs to go!

Long Live The Giant BFT Fisheries.
Ban BFT Farming & Caging
"Do it on DA Troll"

[tunacity]

RARHOMES,

I don't understand your point. Please clarify.

Salty,

Thanks for caring and backing the caring by ACTION.

When I tell my kids about BFT, I want them to be thinking of when they'll catch their first one, not of something that was in the past.

[rarhomes]

Tuna City,

My comment was directed at Tuna Taxie. "Why don't we drop bombs on these guys just like we do other "threats to U.S. interest?"

I don't want to get off the tuna fish subject, and I know this is a fishing forum but this comment from a person who is a big fan of factual, intellectual and even scientific discussions needs to understand the U.S. of A. has never just dropped a bomb on anybody just for U. S. interest. And I don't think his comments are factual, intellectual, or even based on scientific discussions as he is such a fan of.

As for the BFT issues I am all for protecting them world wide, catching large quantities of tunas and tuna ranching as they are doing now is only going to benefit a few (no different than the swordfish fishery and long liners). These precious resources, that are in such great danger, belongs to everybody world wide and needs all the help and support we can give it.

Just my opinion.

Capt. Rick

[Sea Draggin]

Dropping bombs??? Might as well shoot at them with rubber bullets

A better solution might be to have Navy ships on "routine patrol" in those areas. They do it to protect the cruise lines off Somalia. They have to patrol somewhere, might as well be there.

Like I said in another post, those countries were allowed to overfish their quotas between Jun (when it was full) until now. I'm glad that finally did something, but wow, talk about late.

[JD5652]

Tuna City,

My comment was directed at Tuna Taxie. "Why don't we drop bombs on these guys just like we do other "threats to U.S. interest?"

I don't want to get off the tuna fish subject, and I know this is a fishing forum but this comment from a person who is a big fan of factual, intellectual and even scientific discussions needs to understand the U.S. of A. has never just dropped a bomb on anybody just for U. S. interest. And I don't think his comments are factual, intellectual, or even based on scientific discussions as he is such a fan of.

Capt. Rick

Rarhomes-

Tuna Taxi is a well respected, long time member here on SFC and does knows ALL the issues related to BFT. IF you knew him, you would understand that the "dropping bombs" comment was tongue-in-cheek.

Lighten up a little.....