Editor's View: Ngo's Rush to Build Their Organizations on the Back of Tuna Industry Troubles
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Editor's View] Commentary By John Sackton - July 29, 2016
The US and Global Tuna industry is facing a rough patch. The highly concentrated industry has faced criticism as tuna stocks are being fished at their maximum rate, and in the US, a retailer lawsuit accuses the top three tuna companies of price fixing.
NGO’s, both the Marine Stewardship Council and Greenpeace, have seized on the tuna issues to try and build their own commercial success on the tuna industry’s problems.
Remember the ‘Give Swordfish a Break’ campaign. In the US the Chef’s Collaborative and others started a boycott movement against swordfish in the 1990’s, claiming the stock was overfished and that responsible restaurants should not serve swordfish.
Many Chefs bought this emotional argument but failed to look at the actual science and facts. While it was true that for a time swordfish was being overfished, the management and monitoring measures put in place both in the US and Internationally, reversed the situation. The swordfish stocks in the North Atlantic returned to healthy levels, and the rebuilding of swordfish is one of the major fisheries success stories of the past 20 years.
This occurred despite the Chef’s campaign, not because of it. The campaign damaged sales of swordfish, but it had no impact on the industry, regulatory and scientific efforts that went to change the situation.
For several years the tuna industry has been in crisis in one way or another. As the largest fishery conducted on highly migratory stocks which by definition cannot be managed within a single country’s EEZ, tuna management and enforcement was notoriously weak. At the same time, tuna consumption in the US has seen a multi-year decline.
Tuna regulations in each of the major ocean basins...
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