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BRING BACK THE BIG FISH!
Program Overview
The Threat
The world’s large open-ocean predators – the tunas, swordfish,
billfish and sharks – are the lions, tigers and wolves of the
sea. But these magnificent fish are threatened by over-exploitation
for commercial markets. By removing so many of the sea's top predators,
we are weakening an entire tier at the top of the food chain. Many
big fish populations are at record lows in the Atlantic and Pacific
-- some severely depleted. The goal of NCMC's "Bring Back the
Big Fish" program is to restore populations of big fish (also
known as large pelagics) to healthy levels. The reasons these fish
are in trouble are 3-fold:
- "overfishing," or removing
fish at rates faster than they can reproduce
- indiscriminate and wasteful fishing practices,
mainly longline fishing gear. Many fish populations are being
decimated by "bycatch" or "by-kill," caught
by accident in fishing operations targeting other species of fish
- ineffective management both in the
US and internationally
Solutions
for the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico
and Pacific
Our objective is to continue and strengthen conservation
efforts in the US while promoting stronger international measures.
1. A true swordfish recovery, with a transition
to more
sustainable fishing methods.
The Atlantic swordfish is in the early stages of recovery, but most
of the broadbill out there are still juveniles, years away from
breeding. NCMC believes a true swordfish recovery means a swordfish
population that includes an abundance of age groups, including the
older, more prolific spawners. Such a population will allow us to
revive the selective and sustainable commercial harpoon fisheries
along with the once legendary recreational rod-and-reel fisheries.
Our goals include moving more of the commercial swordfish quota
from the longline fishery to the hand-gear, or harpoon fishery,
which, before the advent of longlining, caught more than the current
U.S. and Canadian quotas with zero bycatch. In addition, we support
replacing the recreational swordfish bag limit with a higher minimum
size limit (>100 lbs.) to allow expansion of the rod-and-reel
fishery while protecting the growing juvenile population.
2. Saving the giant bluefin tuna.
The United States must get more involved in the chronic overfishing
of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea because
mixing occurs between the eastern and western stocks in heavily
fished areas. NCMC is supporting the U.S. in seeking tougher international
conservation measures at the International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). But the answer to our problems in the
western Atlantic does not lie entirely in the east. The severely
depleted western Atlantic stock spawns in the Gulf of Mexico and
all adult bluefin present there during spawning season (March through
June) are western breeders. We support tougher domestic regulations
to protect western Atlantic bluefin, including closing the Gulf
to longlining during spawning season. We oppose plans to permit
tuna ranching in the Gulf, because it would seriously threaten the
bluefin's critical spawning habitat as well as its food source (menhaden
would likely be harvested locally for fish feed). We are also working
to protect the bluefin's forage base (herring) from mid-water trawlers
off New England and the Mid-Atlantic region.
3. Greater protection for coastal and pelagic
sharks.
The commercial shark fishery is unmanageable and unsustainable.
The sandbar shark, which is the primary target of many commercial
shark fishermen, is projected to take 70 years to rebuild while
allowing limited catches. Recovery for porbeagle sharks is estimated
at 100 years with zero catch. And the dusky shark could take from
100-400 years to get off the overfished list. Regulation of the
commercial fishery is becoming increasingly restrictive, complex,
time-consuming, and expensive, all to keep a relatively few fishermen
in business. Sharks can handle only the most limited fishing. Commercial
shark fisheries are simply not sustainable. Until we end commercial
shark fishing for good, we are working to close loopholes in the
ban on shark finning – which drives most fishing pressure -
by requiring all sharks to be landed whole, fins attached.
4. Strong blue and white marlin and sailfish
conservation in U.S. waters.
Specific goals include:
- Circle hooks: A public and private
partnership in education programs to increase the use
of circle hooks in the recreational billfish fishery to
increase survival in tag-and-release. Sport anglers release almost
all billfish alive. The use of circle hooks instead of J-hooks
dramatically enhances of survival to near 100%.
- No-Longlining Zones: Maintaining the
existing longline time-area closures to minimize bycatch. The
longlining closures off the southeast coast and eastern Gulf of
Mexico (see
map for details) were a crucial step toward the swordfish
recovery, particularly in Florida, and as a bonus reduced by-kill
of marlins, sailfish, dolphin and large coastal sharks by up to
75 percent for some species. NCMC opposes attempts by the U.S.
longline industry to return to fishing in these waters under the
guise of “research” or simply to increase our commercial
swordfish landings. Because the closed areas are benefiting a
wide range of species, the goal of any bycatch reduction program
that might be considered as a substitute for closed areas must
be to achieve at least that same level of conservation.
5. Greater international protection for blue
and white marlin on the high seas.
Because the U.S. is a major market for the importation of billfish
caught on the high seas by foreign longliners (over 2 million pounds
of marlin per year), we have launched a new consumer-based initiative,
called Take
Marlin Off the Menu, to remove all marlin from restaurant menus
and close U.S. seafood markets to Pacific marlin, sailfish and spearfish,
to augment the current ban on the import and sale of threatened
Atlantic billfish. Our partner in this initiative is the International
Game Fish Association. Our long-term goal is to raise consumer and
public awareness of the plight of billfish to unprecedented levels
and make billfish conservation a priority for the 111th Congress
and Obama Administration, ultimately leading to national legislation
to outlaw importation and sale of any species of billfish and a
national commitment to become the world leader for more meaningful
international conservation, in the Pacific as well as Atlantic.
Who We Are
The National Coalition for Marine Conservation (NCMC) has been a
leader in conserving big fish since 1973. To this day, we are the
only national conservation group working to conserve tunas, swordfish,
billfish and sharks, in the Atlantic and Pacific. NCMC staff serve
on numerous advisory bodies, including the National Marine Fisheries
Service Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel and the U.S. Advisory
Committee to the International Commission for the Conservation of
Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Our accomplishments include:
- We published Ocean Roulette, a groundbreaking
study of the pelagic longline fisheries. Our report’s recommendations
are being implemented, including extensive coastal waters areas
now closed to longlining.
- In 2001, an NCMC lawsuit closed 133,000 square miles of the
Atlantic to longlining to reduce bycatch of threatened species.
- In 2004, the first federal conservation plan for Pacific big
fish was approved, banning longlining off the U.S. west coast
out to 200 miles.
- Years of hard work leading the push for pro-active measures
to protect dolphin-fish (mahi mahi) were rewarded with a landmark
conservation plan.
- We and our allies persuaded Congress to outlaw the practice
of shark “finning,” or killing sharks for their fins.
- We successfully obtained an ICCAT resolution to protect habitat
of big fish in the Atlantic, the first step toward an ecosystem-based
approach at the international level.
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National Coalition for Marine Conservation
4 Royal Street SE, Leesburg, VA 20175 USA
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