Tuna fishermen to keep close watch on Morocco meetings

By Jim Brown

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Transcontinental Media/The Journal Pioneer

SEACOW POND, P.E.I. – Two years ago, Seacow Pond fisherman Ricky Brennan caught 13 bluefin tuna. This year was also a good one.

But looming meetings in Morocco involving more than 40 tuna-fishing countries could change his luck. “We’re the nice, honest ones,” said Brennan. “And we could finish last.”

Brennan worries the United States appears to be supporting a five-year ban on tuna fishing, or at the very least sharp cuts. “If they’re not catching their fish, why go after your next door neighbour, where stocks are good?” he asked.

Brennan is a member of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association’s tuna advisory committee.

Two Island representatives, tuna fisherman Walter Bruce and another fisher, Kenny Drake, who is also the PEIFA’s new president, are attending the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meetings.

Tuna numbers have taken a steep plunge in the Eastern Atlantic, where quotas of 28,000 tonnes have been massively over-harvested.

In the U.S., meanwhile, just 20 per cent of the American quota was caught last year, said Brennan. “They have a thousand tonne quota and they only caught 200 tonnes last year and the year before,” he said.

Americans and Europeans have used seine nets and harpoons to capture tuna while Canadian fishers have relied on hook and line and have managed the fishery much better, to the extent that quotas are easily reached.

But Brennan is worried that will all change if ICCAT decides to shut down the fishery to save stocks in the Western Atlantic, where fishers have used spotter planes and large nets to capture their prey.

If approved, the process could take at least two years.

But he is reassured by the fact fisheries scientists will be accompanying the Canadian delegation, armed with research showing stocks on the Canadian side are healthy, sustainable and rising.

So is Drake. “We’ve produced good science and good data,” said Drake.

But Drake shares Brennan’s view that Canada is being “tarred with the same brush” as European tuna-fishing nations who have ravaged their stocks.

Brennan, meanwhile, argues Island fishers should be getting a much larger share of the Canadian pie. “There are 720 licences in Canada and P.E.I. has 360,” said Brennan. “Yet, we’re only getting 30 per cent of the pie... We should be getting 250 tonnes.”

Drake and Brennan both listed plentiful food sources, in the form of large quantities of herring and mackerel, as a major reason tuna are lingering on