Tuna

Is the most popular tinned fish in UK. Four out of the six species are overfished. Avoid scarcer species, such as bluefin in sushi.
TIP: Choose line caught that are ‘dolphin friendly’, but may catch seabirds.

Problems

All commercially fished species of tuna are under pressure; of these species bigeye is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. The northern bluefin is endangered in the East Atlantic and critically endangered in the West Atlantic.
Pacific bluefin tuna has very low resilience to fishing and current rates are unsustainable. In the Indian Ocean bluefin is overfished.
Albacore is moderately vulnerable to fishing.
Virtually all stocks are heavily exploited in the Atlantic.
Much of the fishing is illegal. Many countries fail to report large catches of tuna.
Many governments are ignoring scientific advice and fail to implement management practices, as well as turning a blind eye to illegal fishing.
It is very difficult to control and regulate fishing at high seas.
Tuna farming of bluefin relies on the capture of juveniles from the wild, which effects wild breeding success.
Bycatch can include many species of shark, whale and dolphin. The practices have many damaging effects on marine ecosystems.

Solutions

Avoid eating bigeye and north and south pacific bluefin tuna. As well as all farmed bluefin tuna.
Line or troll caught tuna are ‘dolphin friendly’ fishing methods.
WWF suggests a sustainable recovery plan, which includes a reduction in tuna fishing and farming capacity. It also calls for improvements in law enforcement and reporting of catches.
In 2004, the EU banned the import of tuna from countries whose fishing activities undermine efforts to conserve and manage stocks in a sustainable way.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) agreed to combat illegal fishing and cut the annual catch of bluefin by a fifth.
The deal will see an increase in the permitted minimum size of fish caught from 10 to 30kg, an extended closed season, control schemes to enforce regulations and a limit to single bluefin tuna caught for recreational fishing. They aim for catches to fall from 32, 000 tonnes to 25,000 by 2010.
Japan has also agreed to cut its own catch of southern bluefin by 50%.
Conservation groups say this is not enough and that EU governments have traded in long-term conservation for short-term commercial interest.

Photo courtesy of Mohamed Seeneen