Shocking facts have been revealed about the global depletion of the stock of all three bluefin tuna species in recent times. Anna Hager investigates what this means for the tuna industry and how we continue to force bluefin tuna down the path to extinction.

Popularity of delicacies like bluefin tuna sashimi has caused overfishing in some parts of the world. Image: Mokeneco

If you’re thinking about sitting down at your favourite sushi restaurant to indulge in a big chunk of sashimi in the near future, you might want to know a few facts about your favourite meal first, because this delicacy is causing chaos for the bluefin tuna industry.

Globally, tuna is one of the most popular fish to eat. According to healthytuna.com, it is so popular that one third of all seafood consumed in America is comprised of tuna. The US and Japan also consume the largest amount of bluefin tuna at 31 per cent.

Despite this, few tuna eaters are aware that the bluefin tuna species, primarily used for products such as sashimi at the higher end of the market, is actually close to extinction if we continue to consume and harvest it at current rates.

The Southern Bluefin Tuna population for example is estimated to have reduced by at least 80 per cent over the past three generations.

According to a report by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), fishing quotas in Australia alone have risen from around 9,000 ton in 2004 to over 10,000 in 2008.

“Over 99 per cent of the harvest of 8,500 tonnes [Southern Bluefin only] per annum is exported, almost all to Japan,” Brian Jeffriess, CEO of the Australian Southern Bluefin Industry Association says.

The value of bluefin tuna as commercial catch goes back to ancient times, when the Greeks and Phoenicians started harvesting it. Fastforward and demand soared in the 1970s, when commercial fishing made the capturing of this gentle giant much easier.

What is the plight of the bluefin tuna?

When talking about bluefin tuna, classified as one of the heaviest and largest known bony fish, it is important to consider that there are three distinctly different breeds.

Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT), found in the Southern Hemisphere, is also the most important species to Australia’s fishing industry.

Southern Bluefin can weigh up to 200 kilograms; grow up to a size of two metres and get to the age of forty years.

The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) says that SBT is mainly exported to Japan, where premium prices can be obtained due to the high fat content in the flesh.

“The SBT caught are mainly frozen at very low temperatures (-60C) and either unloaded at intermediate ports and shipped to markets in Japan or unloaded directly at markets in Japan,” the CCSBT says.

At a pace of up to 70 kilometres per hour, the second breed, Pacific Bluefin Tuna are dubbed the biggest and fastest creatures of the Pacific Ocean, but haven’t been on the radar as much as their cousin, the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.

Atlantic Bluefin is native to the Atlantic Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea. According to scientists, the Atlantic Bluefin breed is in the worst position out of all three.

“Atlantic Bluefin is heavily over-fished and stocks are in danger of irreversible collapse,” says Glenn Sant, Global Marine Program leader at TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

Maria Jose Cornax, marine scientist from OCEANA in Spain also says, “Although Pacific and Southern Bluefin are overexploited as well; their biomass is higher than that of the Atlantic case.”

But, despite being different species, all bluefin tuna are crucially linked in their plight and need to be dealt with on a uniform basis.

“An Atlantic Bluefin tuna trade ban would have implied the necessary inclusion of the other bluefin tunas in CITES Appendix II as look-alike species, due to difficulties to differentiate processed forms of tunas because of their similarities,” Cornax says.

Despite attempts at regulation, bluefin continues down the road to extinction

The highly migratory nature of bluefin tuna and the economic importance of the species make controlling and co-ordinating an attempt to save stocks very difficult.

Sheree Glasson from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Australia says that, “tuna are highly migratory. Because of this, managing tuna fisheries is co-ordinated under international agreements, through bodies known as regional fisheries management organisations.”

In recent times there have been several major and mostly unsuccessful attempts to regulate the international trade of bluefin tuna.

In 2009, Malta, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, France and Greece blocked a proposed bluefin trade ban despite support from 21 other EU governments.

This came after Monaco and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), asked for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna to be put on the endangered species list.

Most recently in March 2010, a CITES convention in Doha proposing an all-out ban on the export of Atlantic Bluefin resulted in a contentious battle between the East and the West. The proposal was blocked, once again leaving the fate of the fish species uncertain.

French purse seiner Gerard Luc III rolling up the net with a bluefin tuna in the south of Formentera, Balearic Island, Spain. Image: © OCEANA / Keith Ellenbogen

Although the bluefin tuna trade means big business, Tamara Ward from the US Fisheries and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Virginia, says that regardless of the setbacks at Doha the conservation of Atlantic Bluefin is a high priority for America.

“We will keep fighting to ensure that fishery is managed sustainably, so that future generations may see a return to health,” she says.

In Australia, where the NSW Department of Primary Industries added the Southern Bluefin Tuna to the endangered species list, the Commonwealth Government decided to reduce Southern Bluefin fishing quotas by 23 per cent to 4015 tonnes in June 2010.

In an attempt to protect the bluefin tuna, the European Union recently ended the official 2010 tuna season a week early; with a ban affecting the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the Guardian reported.

Conservation organisations have also become aware of the situation. In January 2010 for example, the Sea Shepherd, well known for their anti-whaling efforts, have added protection of bluefin tuna to their conservation agenda.

They are planning to do this mainly by interrupting illegal poachers from depleting already frail-looking stocks. This campaign however will be confined to the Mediterranean, meaning that it will only protect the Atlantic Bluefin breed.

Illegal fishing and poaching heavily contribute to the plight of Bluefin

Despite strict regulations, illegal poaching of the bluefin tuna species does nothing but add to the irreversible collapse of a once healthy stock.

Over the 22 years leading up to 2006, large-scale illegal catch has depleted the Southern Bluefin stock in Southern Hemisphere waters. But poaching is a phenomenon affecting all bluefin species.

“The biggest quotas for fishing Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are held by the USA and the EU. However, in the Mediterranean particularly, there is a lot of illegal fishing of tuna,” says Sant from TRAFFIC.

Brian Jeffriess, from the SBT Industry Association, also says that Australia recently lost large amounts of fishing quota “even though the stock problem was caused by Japan’s illegal catch”.

“This happened because Australia was trying to buy Japan’s goodwill on wider trade issues.

“What the outcome said to both the SBT industry and the wider fishing industry was that the Australian Government was prepared to sacrifice an important seafood industry to achieve a bigger trade agenda,” he says.

Tamara Ward from FWS also says that illegal fishing results in uncertainty with stock levels, which in turn can lead to overfishing of the bluefin tuna species.

“Although fishing regulations are currently in place, unsustainable quota levels and overfishing, including illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities, are threats to the Eastern and Western stock,” she says.

Read Part two of Anna Hager‘s article, Where have all the fish gone? tomorrow.

Beneath the natural wonder of Santorini’s cliff tops and lagoon, the villages are being covered in plastic bottles and waste as the Greek government fails to implement a central recycling scheme. Elise Dalley and Ben O’Halloran report from Santorini, Greece.

Discarded bottle on Perissa Beach, Santorini. Image: Elise Dalley

Public ignorance towards recycling and the need to drink bottled water for health reasons is placing an already distressed Greek economy at serious risk.

Santorini, famous for its spectacular caldera and cliff top villages, is fast becoming overrun with waste from tourism due to an inadequate waste management scheme for plastics and a community that is yet to recognise the importance of recycling.

Dimitris Sigalas, Environmental Advisor to the Mayor of Santorini, told Reportage that while the iconic Island strongly depends upon tourism as a key source of income, visitors are also contributing to serious environmental degradation of the island.

“Without tourism, it is very difficult to survive, but with tourism, we have double problems,” he said.

Sigalas said over 90,000 people visited the island in June during the peak holiday season, more than six times the number of permanent residents.

As Santorini does not have a fresh water source and is yet to offer clean tap water, restaurants, hotels, kiosks and local supermarkets sell hundreds of thousands of bottled water year round, especially during summer as temperatures peak above 40 degrees.

With large volumes of plastic waste and no recycling program in place, Sigalas believes the government must show urgency in a serious attempt to introduce and advocate plastic recycling across Greece.

“The problem belongs exactly, again, to the Greek government.

“It is a big problem for Santorini … because at the moment there is not a central system to recycle all the rubbish in Greece,” Sigalas said.

Most of Santorini is protected for its archaeological importance due to its caldera, or basin which was formed from an volcanic explosion.

This protection is causing great concern for the local council who are fast running out of adequate underground disposal sites for rubbish.

“We are in a very bad situation because of our bad economy, but if the question is about recycling, by the law, we have to start now.

“We cannot go back,” Sigalas said.

Thousands of plastic water bottles are sold as the island has no fresh water source. Image: Elise Dalley

In an attempt to convert Europe into a recycling society who seeks to avoid waste, the European Commission, operating under the European Union, introduced the Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling in 2005.

Key elements of this strategy, including a recognition of the immediate need to recycle in order to cut down on a generation of waste, have been largely ignored by the Greek government.

Sigalas said the government needs to coordinate a strict policy review to allow strategies to filter down into local government levels and bring Greece in line with the rest of Europe.

He told Reportage that while the council on the Island is ready to act, they are looking to Athens for an official policy decision as to when and where a plastic recycling plant can be built.

“Although we are ready, with the papers and the plans, we have not the area.

“Maybe by the end of this year we will have an answer from the government and they will tell us where is the right area to start,” he said.

It is this ignorance and neglect for environmental protection that highlights the old habits of the Greek people that Sigalas said must change.

“It is difficult to change their behaviour, their way of thinking.

“We can earn from tourism and I don’t mean only money, but a way of thinking, a way of life,” he said.

He believes that if the local people can manage to change their way of thinking, then the tourists will follow on.

“It is very important to us…we have to look after ourselves here. If we solve this problem exactly for the 13 000 local people, after will be easier to work in the summer.”

Effie Kotula, a summer tour guide for Kamari Tours on Santorini, agrees that a culture change is needed to better deal with waste on the Island.

“In Greece, we have another culture and mentality [to the rest of Europe], so leaving bottles on the beach is not pollution.

“We have many tourists in summer and we consume many products, so of course it would be better to recycle,” she said.

Dimitris Sigalas believes tourists will help keep the island clean if the residents do the same. Image: Elise Dalley

Vassilis Lignos, hotel and restaurant owner at the famous black pebbled Perissa Beach, believes that residents have already started to change their way of thinking about recycling and respecting the value of their local environment.

However, he also agrees with Sigalas that it is the government who must now demonstrate their willingness to change before any progress will be made.

“People are interested to do this.

“The Greek people are starting to press, but the Mayors’ offices are too slow,” he said.

Born on the Island and now raising his own two children there, Lignos fears the playground of his early days will be soon be ruined by waste because poor government structure is preventing the force of local pressure from being felt by decision makers in Athens.

“We go to the village mayor, who goes to the Santorini mayor, to the Cyclades mayor, to the government; there are too many steps.”

In order to bring about a policy change within the government and a cultural change within the community, both Sigalas and the younger generation in Greece believe education of locals and tourists is the key.

“We have to teach the new generation not to make the same mistakes like my generation.

“If the tourists, when they come here, know the problem and know exactly how it works here, they will look after the island more,” Sigalas said.

Maria Sazlara, 15 year old Greek school student, said while she may recognise the lack of plastic recycling as a problem, most Greeks do not because of a lack of public advertising about its benefits.

“I believe that the Greeks haven’t actually realised what is happening to the planet.

“They find it difficult to get used to the idea of recycling and think there is no point,” she said.

Maria Gkougkoulia, university student from Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, said that she too understands the issues but finds it hard to recycle due to the lack of infrastructure provided by the government.

“There are not many recycling bins.

“Of course I don’t like to throw out rubbish, I have ecological sensibility, but this issue is really big and our system has a different way of progressing to other places,” she said.

Anthi Karahrisafi, also a student in Thessaloniki, agrees that recycling must be addressed as a priority political issue in order to start educating the community.

“They [the people] are not informed, the politicians are not actually interested and they don’t spend their money to advertise recycling,” she said.

Not alone in their beliefs, the European Commission also outlines education as a key strategy to improving waste management and recycling across Europe and despite their 2008 Sustainable Future is in our Hands report demanding “words be put into action”, Greece is still considerably behind.

Sigalas, a resident of the Island for 50 years, said this is just the beginning of what will be a long battle to protect the island from losing the postcard perfect image he is fiercely proud of.

“Of course I worry, but I have to change it, I have to fight against this,” he said.

It is surprising to think that so much environmental harm is caused by what we choose to put on our plates every day. So what can be done to counter this? Avleen Masawan explores sustainable eating.

Fast food waste. Image: Sarah Rich.

Today there’s so much choice at your local supermarket it’s enough to confuse the most iron-willed and efficient shoppers. There’s ethical, organic, exotic, local, free range, soy- and let’s not forget the low-fat, sugar-free, triple chocolate, low-in-carbs variety. But our freedom of choice in the foods we eat could be the very thing to save the planet.

2010 United Nations report Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production revealed that a fundamental way to address the looming impacts of climate change is to eat sustainably. The report concluded that a worldwide change in diet is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as food production is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases for households, contributing nearly a fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global freshwater consumption.

So how does the Big Mac Meal you ate for lunch have anything to do with global warming? As it turns out, the two have much in common. Many harmful greenhouse gases contributing to climate change such as carbon, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons, are released in high levels during the growing, production, storage, distribution and consumption of the foods we eat.

Take for example a burger and milkshake, the perfect lunch-to-go on a busy day. It may be easy on the wallet, but the ecological cost is much higher, as animal agriculture is one of the highest causes of greenhouse gas emissions. A report by Compassion in World Farming found that in 2009 the livestock sector contributed to 37% of total methane emissions, 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, and 9% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. In 2007, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that agriculture as a whole is responsible for nearly half of total methane emissions, and 58% of total emissions of nitrous oxide.

If livestock numbers continue to multiply to meet demand, the IPCC predicts that methane emissions will increase by a staggering 60% until 2030. The greater demand for meat is influenced by cultural factors that are hard to control. Food choices often reflect income levels, with the UN report finding that environmental impacts rise by about 80% as income doubles. Rising affluence in developing countries with strong economic growth such as India and China has been linked to shifts to a more meat based diet.

Sustainable eating
It is surprising to think that so much environmental harm is happening because of what we choose to put on our plates every day. So what can be done to counter this? According to UN, scientists, environmental groups, and dieticians alike, sustainable eating is the best solution.

The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainability as “meet[ing] the needs of the current generation without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their economic needs.”

At the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute of Sustainable Futures, Jane Daly is conducting research on the barriers to reducing meat and dairy consumption as part of the Food, Diet and Sustainability Unit. She claims that thinking about the foods we eat can help reduce our environmental footprint.

“It is a really good opportunity for people who are concerned about climate change and the environment when they’ve done everything else they can do. For people with jobs that are far away who rely on cars to drive to work and are thinking, ‘How else can I change my environmental footprint?’ diet is a really good way. On the other side, if you’ve switched to green power or cycling and you’re off public transport, you’re going really well and next is to look at diet.”

Nicole Senior, National Convener of Dieticians Association Australia (DAA), believes that sustainable eating is not just an option, but a necessity.

“We are in a crisis. The way we’ve been producing food until now has done untold damage to the environment and hasn’t done the human race any favours. There are billions of hungry people and the way we’re producing food is reaching crisis levels,” she says.

“We’ve got population growth, we’ve got climate change, we’ve got peak everything- peak oil, peak water, peak phosphorous, peak soil. Those things are running out quite rapidly. We’ve got more people to feed, so something’s gotta give. If we look at food production in a more sustainable way we’ll avert the crisis.”

The trend towards overconsumption in developed countries like Australia means that non-renewable resources are running out, and human ability to produce food is being threatened. Australia faces this challenge with phosphate rock, a resource that Australian soil depends on due to its naturally phosphorous deficient state. But this essential resource is running out due to overuse and may soon put an end to Australian agriculture altogether. The Australian government’s 2008 Garnault Report predicted that by mid-century, “irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin would be likely to lose half of its annual output.” Besides the devastating environmental impacts, Australian food exports would be limited, putting a strain on economic growth.

What does eating sustainably involve?
Ms Senior, who is also a dietician, says, “Eating to meet physical needs is important, focusing on mostly a plant food diet and animal foods in condiments rather than the main event. We’ll be eating nutritional foods, less extra foods. Much of our fresh foods will be organic or a combination of traditional or organic. We’ll be eating more locally produced foods and food we grow ourselves, like veggie patches in the backyard.”

The recent UN report confirms that a sustainable diet should include less meat and dairy consumption, as meat and dairy produce more emissions than plants. Ms Daly agrees.

“One of the best ways that people can reduce the carbon footprint from their diet is to add more plant based meals. It could mean one meal, like lunch, then you gradually broaden and increase it,” she says.

“It’s easy to do, especially in Australia. We have access to so many great markets and fresh fruits and veg, and nuts and seeds and gorgeous produce, making shifting to a plant based diet really easy and accessible.”

But there are barriers to trying to eat less meat, and the Aussie culture of chucking some snags on the barbie is just one practical reality that Ms Daly recognises must be dealt with.

“There’s so much cultural importance around meat and meat is really every part of our world. Eating symbolises different things in different cultures. Meat has become a status symbol in some cultures and is linked with celebrations and Christmas, weddings and the family roast. Meat has a lot of symbolic meaning and is seen as an important thing for family.”

Eating sustainably doesn’t mean everyone has to turn vegetarian though; a mere moderate shift away from excessive meat consumption is enough. “For those that eat meat every meal, why don’t you have one meal plant-based, like breakfast?” suggests Ms Daly.

A study published in The Lancet Medical Journal in 2007 supports this, saying average global consumption of meat at 100 grams a day should be reduced by just 10 grams to 90 grams per day. This way by 2050 countries should be able to meet emissions targets, which will be below 2005 levels.

Food miles
There is more to sustainable eating than how much meat and dairy we eat. There’s also the goal of reducing “food miles,” or the distance that food travels to get to our plates. By eating more locally produced food, rather than imported food, we can reduce carbon fuel cycle emissions released from transporting food around Australia or the world using trucks, planes or ships. What is often missing when calculating food miles is the distance we as consumers travel to buy food. A 2008 UK study published in Food Policy revealed that driving to the shops for food was 40% of all shopping trips, 5% of all car trips and 16 million kilometres worth of travel each year. Solutions offered in other countries include home delivery from major suppliers, but that option is yet to take off in Australia.

A friend of food mile reduction is local farmers’ markets. Consumers buy their fruits and veggies direct from a neighbouring producer. Farmers’ markets are becoming more popular, with markets cropping up in several Sydney suburbs including Auburn, Chatswood, Frenchs Forest, Gladesville, Hornsby, Leichhardt and Marrickville. In reality, though, Australia is quite a multicultural society and it’s hard to always eat locally. Embracing cultural diversity means letting people eat the food they grew up with. For Aussies with overseas heritage, this means lots of trips to the Korean, Persian or Indian store to get our fill. In these stores, all the foods are imported and the intention to buy locally is often thwarted by nostalgia and convenience.

It is the same convenience factor that taunts other sustainable goals like eating seasonal and less processed foods. By eating seasonal foods, we would be reducing emissions from leaked refrigerants in cold storage facilities over months. By eating less junk food, we would be reducing energy from inputs like the electricity and machinery it takes to make them, and limit the waste from their packaging. The busy lifestyle of the 21st century is perhaps the biggest deterrent from sustainable eating. Ms Senior recognises that some of the goals of sustainable eating are, for most people, easier said than done.

“Our lifestyles make it difficult to eat sustainably. We eat on the run, and what we grab on the run is not the best for us and the best for the environment. Extra foods have such strong social symbols, like eating cake at birthdays and drinking soft drinks when out and about. It’s highly complicated. Dietary change is difficult and long term.”

Government action
Consumers shouldn’t feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders; governments need to take more responsibility and provide better incentives for the goal of eating sustainably to become a reality. Things like carbon labelling of food items, which has been rolled out in Sweden and the UK, would help push consumers in the right direction and at least make people aware of how diet choices are affecting the environment. In Sweden, fast food restaurants are required to reveal how much carbon is released per kilogram for all fries and burgers.

The Australian government has taken its first baby steps towards sustainable eating. It is currently reviewing the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, which provides national dietary guidelines, to include sustainability. It has also set up local campaigns like Love Food Hate Waste that strongly encourage Australians not to waste any food. NSW residents alone send about 800 000 tonnes of wasted food to landfill a year, and when this breaks down it releases copious amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

Ms Daly says the government itself needs to take a step back and see how their own actions are contributing to climate change.
“A lot of the livestock industry is highly subsidised. The meat association gets funding from the Australian government which they put into their meat campaigns. The government is subsidising something that is highly polluting. It’s a perverse solution.”

Fairytale ending?
For sustainable eating to transform from a promising fairy tale to everyday reality, it is necessary for government, industry and consumers to all work together. While the big decisions may be out of our hands, for the average Joe it means being more mindful of how our everyday choices are affecting something bigger.

It would seem that poor Susan O’Reilly, our Aussie Mum shopping at Woollies, has yet another thing to worry about when wondering what to pluck off the shelves. But if thinking about the environmental impact of what she puts in her trolley improves her sons’ opportunities of a promising future- one with a thriving economy and enough food to eat -this might just be more important than whether they end up eating Maggi or Mi Goreng noodles tonight.