NEW BFT Quota Numbers Released

[JD5652]

Saw this on another site......


It appears that there will be quite a drop in the quota for both the General Catagory and Angling Catagory for this coming season. The General Catagory quota will be reduced from 1163 MT to 560 MT. The angling catagory will be reduced from 380 MT to 234 MT.

The ICCAT meeting in Croatia noted that the agreement for bluefin in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea failed to include any sharing arrangement among eastern fishing nations for the 29,500 quota beginning in 2007. It was agreed that a special meeting would be held in early 2007 to try and negotiate the controversial sharing arrangement. The special meeting was held in Tokyo the last week in January and was not entirely successful.

Turkey and Libya have objected to the new agreement both demanding a 1,400 mt increase in their quota over the 2006 level not the new reduced level. With these objections in place both countries will establish "autonomous" quotas at whatever level they decide is necessary. Setting the quota at 29,500 (double the scientific advice) was bad enough and now these objections guarantee the eastern slaughter will continue and lead to one or more environmental groups seeking a CITES listing for Atlantic bluefin tuna in 2008. A CITES listing would result in a prohibition on all international trade of bluefin and bluefin products. In 1992 Sweden proposed a CITES listing for bluefin that was ultimately defeated in Kyoto, Japan after intensive international lobbying by the Japanese government and tuna industry.

The EU is proceeding to set up a basically fraudulent recovery plan that sets the quota twice the level recommended by the scientists, ignores the advice to protect spawning fish in the Mediterranean and finally, increases the minimum size but exempts the major small fish fisheries such as historically found in the Bay of Biscay. It is difficult to accept that in 2007 any group of countries can get away with this level of biological irresponsibility especially on a shared resource.

2007 Domestic Bluefin Quota Specifications

The new 2006 ICCAT agreement for the west Atlantic reduced the quota from 2,700 mt to 2,140 mt with the U.S. share being 1,190.12 mt (about a 20% reduction). This new quota should result in base quotas as follows for our traditional permit categories:
General 560.5
Harpoon 46.4
Purse Seine 221.3
Incidental 96.3
Angling 234.4

In addition to the base quotas, NMFS has two new quota rollover measures to take into account. The maximum rollover ICCAT now allows is 50% of the base quota which, for the U.S., provides a maximum rollover of 595 mt. We should receive the maximum rollover in 2007 given the considerable underages in 2005 and 2006 even with the 275 tons the U.S. transferred to Canada and Mexico at the ICCAT meeting in Croatia. The second rollover measure is the new domestic rollover cap of no more then 100% of any category's base quota can be added to subsequent years allocations. Any quota in excess of the 100% cap reverts to the Reserve category for potential in-season reallocation.

NMFS is targeting early March for release of preliminary quota specifications.

More interesting Links...

http://www.fishermensvoice.com/archives/0107iccat.html
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barro...cs/tuna_en.htm
http://www.iccat.int/
http://www.iccat.int/Documents/Other...Report_ENG.pdf

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

I would bet that even the proposed #'s for 07-08 year will not even come close to being filled. Something has to be done. Can you explain what the CITES listing is & how it would work?

[JD5652]

I would bet that even the proposed #'s for 07-08 year will not even come close to being filled. Something has to be done. Can you explain what the CITES listing is & how it would work?

Capt Jon-

CITES = Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

http://www.cites.org/

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but from what I've read, it would prohibit or severely restrict the sales of any BFT product internationally......and that would include commercial catches of U.S BFT to Japan... Basically it would deal a crushing blow to the BFT fishery in this country.

If anyone else with more experience has a more correct or better interpretation, plesae chime in.

[WAHOONBOX]

WELL.........HERE WE GOT TURKEY , LIBIYA & CROATIA AND A COUNTRY WHO BOMBED PEARL HARBOR ALL WHINING AND WANTING IT ALL.....NOW AIN'T THIS CUTE HERE WITH LYBIA ACTING LIKE THEY GO BY THE RULES OF THE ROAD HERE!!

DON'T YA JUST LOVE THESE GREAT COUNTRIES SETTING UP AGANDAS THAT THE U.S. MUST ADHERE TO....;.I MEAN REALLY......I AM SURPRISED THAT IRAN & VENEZULA IS NOT INVOLVED HERE


THANKS JD FOR THE STATS

[capbob66]

WELL.........HERE WE GOT TURKEY , LIBIYA & CROATIA AND A COUNTRY WHO BOMBED PEARL HARBOR ALL WHINING AND WANTING IT ALL.....NOW AIN'T THIS CUTE HERE WITH LYBIA ACTING LIKE THEY GO BY THE RULES OF THE ROAD HERE!!

DON'T YA JUST LOVE THESE GREAT COUNTRIES SETTING UP AGANDAS THAT THE U.S. MUST ADHERE TO....;.I MEAN REALLY......I AM SURPRISED THAT IRAN & VENEZULA IS NOT INVOLVED HERE


THANKS JD FOR THE STATS

It's just like I said before the inmates run the assylum. They will not stop until they have every metric ton of quota under their belts. It's pretty bad when other countries regulate our fisheries.I SAY PISS ON THEM! we'll make our own darn quotas and they can go sh*t in their hat's. Sorry about getting so fired up but it tick's me off.

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

Capt Jon-

CITES = Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

http://www.cites.org/

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but from what I've read, it would prohibit or severely restrict the sales of any BFT product internationally......and that would include commercial catches of U.S BFT to Japan... Basically it would deal a crushing blow to the BFT fishery in this country.

If anyone else with more experience has a more correct or better interpretation, plesae chime in.

If it would deal a crushing blow to all the countries that commercial fish for BFT then I'm all for it. Our BFt fishery is pretty much kicked in the ass like it is.

[JD5652]

If it would deal a crushing blow to all the countries that commercial fish for BFT then I'm all for it. Our BFt fishery is pretty much kicked in the ass like it is.

I hear you Capt....my take on that is that the U.S. would be the only country to comply and the rest would just do what they are doing now....which is ignore the regs and just do whatever the hell they want to regardless....

[jbrob]

I would bet that even the proposed #'s for 07-08 year will not even come close to being filled. Something has to be done. Can you explain what the CITES listing is & how it would work?

You are right. In a way it doesn't make a damn bit of difference what quota you have if there are not any fish to catch. the East Coast fishery essentially has collapsed for the past two years. Lots of theories but few facts. Having a thousand tons quota and catching 200 tons of fish is pretty conclusive that the fish stocks in the fishing zones are really off.

[Kodi's_Options]

I could be wrong but I'm going to say it/ write it/ anyway. Its not the angler!!! One huge international tuna slaughtering 200 foot processing boat out of any of these eastern countries probably kills more bluefin then every guy on this board, and all the gents in our Marina's combined. I can only speak from my own experience, that 2 years ago we had a pretty good migration of football bluefin off NJ, and a couple of keepers out at the Canyons. Last year was a yellowfin banaza. I think we all saw it. We had one keeper bluefin all season. I realize they'll never close the fishery to the commercial guys without punished us, but the truth that never seems to be told is we, the angler, who fishes for meat and sport, are the ones being punished because the global commercial fisherman and countries supporting them and buying there catch have been irresponsible and destroyed this fishery. No easy answer here, because even if (hypothetically) they closed the fishery entirely for a few years, the only folks that would follow such an order are the few US commercial bluefin guys left and the anglers on this board. Unlike the Swords and their incredible return to the east coast shelf, too many of the tuna that frequent our coast end up being caught on the other side of the pond by countries that don't follow the regs. My point: There is no easy answer but in the end the angler, specifically American angler is the one category that gets screwed by both the overfishing of foreign commercial fleets and the new regs that don't have the teeth necessary to restore the fishery. In the end if it isn't fixed soon it won't matter, you won't have to worry about catching bluefin. Sorry, needed to vent.

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

there is some good info about the BFT in this thread about the problems they are up against. Dr Block BFT meeting this Mon 22nd!!!!!