To Improve Tuna Sustainability in Eastern Pacific, Fishery Managers Must Build on Progress

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) manages fisheries worth billions of dollars each year and at times has struggled to steward these resources effectively. For years, the Commission had ample opportunity—and scientific reasons—to adopt effective measures on vessel monitoring, transparency, and other management issues but instead defaulted to a status quo that imperiled the health of fish populations. Finally, in 2021, IATTC adopted one such improvement: a multiyear plan for managing tropical tuna.

Now, at its Aug. 1-5 meeting in Phoenix, IATTC should build on that success by demonstrating a commitment to durable, science-based fisheries management. Specifically, the Commission should strengthen its oversight of transshipment—the transfer of catch from fishing vessels to carrier ships that take the fish to port—and its monitoring of fisheries activities, and it should adopt a new management measure for North Pacific albacore tuna.

IATTC’s transshipment and vessel monitoring policies are outdated

IATTC has been discussing improvements to transshipment oversight for years but has so far failed to act. Transshipment is a key part of the seafood supply chain, but it can be difficult to monitor—largely because it takes place far from inspectors—and can create opportunities for illegal activities, particularly on the high seas. The Commission has an existing transshipment management measure, but it is out of date and has loopholes that allow for the misreporting of catch data, or, in some cases, no reporting at all. The other regional fisheries management organizations managing tuna in the Atlantic and Indian oceans have recently modernized their transshipment measures to close many of those loopholes, and IATTC should do the same this year. A proposal put forth by the European Union, which IATTC delegates should adopt in Phoenix, would increase oversight of this activity.

IATTC lags behind other regional fisheries management bodies in transshipment reform and in monitoring requirements for fishing vessels. Independent monitoring is vital to collecting the scientific and compliance data needed for effective management, but on-board observer coverage for longline fishing vessels in IATTC waters is well below the 20% rate that IATTC scientists recommend as the minimum threshold for sustainability. To help fill the gap, the Commission is taking steps to design an electronic monitoring (EM) program for its fisheries, which would use computers, gear sensors, and video cameras to record and analyze fishing activity. A new report has found that implementing such a program could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in net benefits over the next decade.

To ensure that EM development proceeds on schedule, IATTC members should heed Commission scientists’ recommendation and create—and fund—an electronic monitoring working group that would develop and present recommendations to the Commission. IATTC should also continue to support informal EM workshops, which have provided important opportunities for information-sharing and discussion among all of its fisheries stakeholders.

Fishing for the future: Implementing a long-term strategy for an iconic fish

North Pacific albacore sparked the growth of the United States’ canned tuna industry in the early 20th century. From Southern California to Seattle, this mild-flavored fish took grocery stores by storm and became one of the country’s best-selling fish. Today, canned albacore is still popular in American lunchboxes, and the fish is caught by a broad swath of IATTC members—including Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, and the U.S.—with catch worth more than $312 million at the final point of sale each year.

Unlike some other species managed by IATTC, North Pacific albacore is neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing, which means not only that there is a sustainable amount in the water but also that vessels are not taking too much out. This presents IATTC with an opportunity. Rather than wait for the population to show signs of depletion, managers can protect North Pacific albacore and the economies it supports well into the future. To do so, IATTC should transition from traditional management to a harvest strategy.

Applying a harvest strategy would move management away from short-term, annual quota negotiations and instead require that managers and stakeholders pre-agree to their objectives for a fishery and the actions they will take in response to changes in stock status. In doing so, IATTC managers can use quotas to provide stable and predictable quotas while ensuring that the albacore population stays healthy. Additionally, in adopting this harvest strategy, IATTC can set the stage for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to take similar action at its meeting in December.

By increasing transparency and oversight of transshipment and fishing vessel activities and implementing a harvest strategy for North Pacific albacore, IATTC would help secure a healthy future for Eastern Pacific fisheries and bring the Commission’s management of these economically, ecologically, and culturally valuable fish into the 21st century.

Grantly Galland works on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ international fisheries project.