The flipside of biodiversity—tuna trade may collapse

By Gregg Yan

SciencePhilippines 

Tuna fuels local economies.

One of every five tuna is caught in the Coral Triangle, a six-million kilometer expanse which covers the waters of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. 

Next to Indonesia, the Philippines is Asia’s largest tuna exporter. In 2010, it was the Western and Central Pacific Ocean’s 7th best tuna generator, shipping 106,449 metric tons of prime-grade yellow fin, big-eye, skipjack and other tunas to the United States, United Kingdom and Germany in 2010. 

Over half (52 percent) of the country’s fish exports come from tuna, which are still abundant off Mindoro, Ilocos Norte, Negros and Sarangani.

Rising demand and decades of intensive fishing threaten the country’s tuna stocks.

“Unless we closely manage and protect remaining populations, our tuna industry might collapse,” warns Joel Palma, Conservation Programs Vice-president for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines). 

Since 2011, WWF's Public Private Partnership Program “Towards Sustainable Tuna” has turned around management practices for 5,000 fishers in 112 tuna fishing villages around the Lagonoy Gulf in Bicol and 28 tuna fishing communities in Occidental Mindoro.

The project encourages the use of appropriate fishing gear and methods such as hand-line reels and circle hooks.

“Hand-line fishing is done aboard small boats. Fishers use single hooks to catch one tuna at a time,” says Mr. Palma. “This ensures that only mature, high-quality tuna are caught while minimizing the problem of by-catch—unintentionally catching species which are usually discarded.”

The deployment of the C-shaped circle hooks has reduced by-catch sea turtle deaths by as much as 90 percent.

“When turtles bite down on these hooks, they just fold inwards. Altering the shape of the hook was all that was needed to minimize turtle by-catch for tuna fishers,” Mr. Palma explains.

The project also works to improve meat handling practices. All fish theoretically start as Grade-A tuna. Poor handling degrades meat quality. A fish caught just three hours before being sold can have Grade-B or Grade-C meat if it is badly bruised. 

Low-grade tuna sells for about P80 per kilogram while sashimi-grade cuts retail for up to P300 per a kilogram.

Due to current practices, almost 70 percent of tuna sold is classified as Grade-C, says WWF-Philippines project manager Joann Binondo.

The project is funded by Coop, Bell Seafood, Seafresh and the German Investment and Development Corporation. It involves European seafood companies and their local suppliers, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, local governments, the WWF Coral Triangle Program, WWF-Germany and WWF-Philippines.

The project has organized municipal tuna fishers associations in all 15 local governments in the Lagonoy Gulf plus six local governments in the Mindoro Strait. They spearhead the registration and licensing of tuna fishers, vessels and gear to minimize by-catch and illegal fishing.

They deploy 1,000 tuna tags to make the catch traceable; training on proper tuna handling assure international quality standards.

That is important, given the European Commission recently gave the Philippine government a “Yellow Card” rating for being unable to sufficiently manage illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. 

“The secret is to add more value to tuna, rather than forcing people to fish more,” says Ms. Binondo. “We must secure quality tuna without seriously increasing fishing effort. Our goal is to ensure that our tuna stocks last for many more generations.