As per the research done by the marine biologist, Atlantic blue tuna will go to extinction if strict measures are not taken by the Governments of the world. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which keeps a red list of all the threatened fish species of the world has announced that Atlantic blue tuna is considered to be critically endangered.
Since 1970, the population of blue tuna has dropped by almost 80 percent. It has been said that even if strict measures are applied on the Total Annual Catch, this may be too little for the regrowth of the fish.
However, this issue has began in the years when fishing vessels were catching fish by using purse seines and long lines for canned tuna market. This method of catching was pulling huge numbers of juvenile Atlantic bluefin which finally destroyed the generations of bluefin tuna by limiting the production capacity.
Japan currently imports about 2,500 tons of Atlantic bluefin annually, some 70-80 percent of global exports, with the bulk of that tonnage caught in the Mediterranean, where the fisheries are regulated by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).
Nowadays, strict quotas are being applied for catch of Atlantic bluefin by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). ICCAT is a multinational group of fisheries regulators in charge of maintaining sustainable stock level of Tuna all through the Atlantic waters.
In 2007, ICCAT has set the quota for Atlantic bluefin to 30,000 tons. However, the ICCAT’s scientists requested to lower the catch limit even more. That is, 7,500 tons but ICCAT cooperated with fishing interests and set the quota to 13,500 tons. But, it has been noticed that despite these regulations, the fishing industries are not respecting the quota and they are still harvesting almost 60,000 tons of Atlantic bluefin per year. However, the ICCAT has announced that if the strict catch limit will not be maintained by the fishing industries and the stock level of tuna have not been rebounded till 2022; some of the fishing areas would be closed down.
