Fishery panel bemoans tuna takes

Yellowfin and bigeye stocks need a break, scientific advisers say

If Pacific yellowfin tuna continues to be caught at current rates, the supply of the prized fish could drop as much as 25 percent in the next five years.

That is the working estimate of the scientific committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, committee Vice Chairman Keith Bigelow said yesterday.

The panel of scientists from 30 countries advises the commission, an international body that is trying to ensure that the Pacific tuna-fishing nations do not overexploit the resource. The scientific committee concludes two weeks of meetings at the Hawaii Convention Center today.

A year ago the scientists urged the commission to require its participating nations to reduce catches of yellowfin tuna by 10 percent, to counteract the likelihood of overfishing, Bigelow said.

The scientists also urged that Pacific fishing nations cut landings of bigeye tuna by 25 percent.

But the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission -- which includes China, Japan and Taiwan -- did not do it, and the scientific committee is likely to recommend the same reductions again this year.

Hawaii longliners, represented by the Hawaii Longline Association, would be willing to trim their share of yellowfin and bigeye catches -- if other countries that harvest much more tuna would do the same, said Sean Martin, a spokesman for the association.

"The Hawaii longline fishery harvests somewhere around 2.5 percent of the bigeye catch in the Pacific, so we're 2.5 percent of the problem," Martin said. "You could take our fishery and say it's closed, and it wouldn't really have an impact" -- unless nations with larger fishing takes participate, he said.

The largest volume of tuna harvested in the Pacific is skipjack, or aku, which is mostly taken with purse seines, a type of net that is not deployed by Hawaii-based fishers.

Although Hawaii's quantity of longline-caught ahi (both yellowfin and bigeye) is relatively small, the market value of the fish is much higher per pound.

"One of the problems we have is getting everybody on the same page, agreeing that we all need to participate in the cuts," Martin said.