Policy Review and Analysis

Policy Review
Pacific Tuna are a species that have been overfished for decades.
The United States and International governments have created policies
to protect the species. Policy is in place to keep a balance of giving
rights to the fisherman and protecting the species. The question is
whether the international and US fisheries should alter their
management to make their policies stronger. This policy review goes
over the specific International and U.S. policies in regard to fishing
pacific tuna.
International Goals
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is
a US fishery governmental program. NOAA works with the International
management called the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries
Commission (WCPFC), which covers most of the pacific ocean. From the
policy review it pulls on provisions of the United Nations stocks
agreement, which overlooks the political, socio-economic, geographical
and environmental characters of western and central Pacific Ocean.
They look at fisheries that are unregulated, over capitalization, and
excessive fleet capacity. In the literature review under fishery impacts,
Morato et al. (2010) evaluated the seamounts in the western and
central Pacific Ocean and determined if there was a relationship
between seamounts and long line tuna catch. The results showed that
that the higher catch rates of tuna are related with the seamounts
throughout the Pacific Ocean. The WCPFC wouldve used their policy to
look at the environmental factors to see that because of these
seamounts the catch of tuna is higher. The WCPFC should strengthen
their policy because environmental factors can produce a higher catch
rate.
Governmental Regulations
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) requires that the
highly migratory species (including pacific tuna) have stock
assessments and fishery evaluation reports for each year. This provides
information about the specific commercial fishery and each fishery
needs to maintain a logbook to document their catch. From results
then they can plan and manage different ways to maintain a balance in
catching pacific tuna. From the literature review, Burgess et al. (2013)
used previous data to predict whether specific species can be over
fished or threatened to extinction. To determine the long-term effects
they measured its loss rate relative to the fishery maximal effort. Their

results showed that now is the time to create preventative measures

to help reduce the chance of overfishing species. The NMFS can help
monitor the fisheries progress and this data alone can help predict
whether species will become extinct or not. This proves that policy
needs to be more protective.
Local Support
The Tuna Research and Conservation Center (TRCC) is a local
collaboration between the Stanford University Hopkins Marine Station
and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Their goal is to advance the
knowledge and understanding of highly migratory fishes including tuna
through research, education and conservation. Their goal is to create a
successful model for future partnerships for aquariums, zoos, and other
programs for academic research. From the literature review under
mortality rates, Okada et al. (2014) researched how industrial mass
production of Pacific Bluefin tuna juveniles. Mass numbers of juveniles
were dying because of being transferred from land nurseries to open
sea net cages. About 50% of the fish were dead after this transfer. The
results showed that the fish were ingesting foreign material, had a low
body weight and starvation. These results are why the juvenile tunas
were dying. This study can be used with the TRCC because they study
the bridge between research and wildlife. Policy does need to be
stricter in protecting the tunas habitat because if it is changed at a
young age the tunas are more likely to die.
Analysis
The International governments and US have specific regulations
in catching pacific tuna. These policies make sure that the pacific tuna
is protected and not overfished. NOAA specifically works with
international programs such as IATTC and WCPFC to protect tuna all
over the Pacific Ocean. The TRCC is a program that studies the tuna
and can make policies based off their research. From looking over the
policy review, the policy in place needs to be stronger for protecting
the tuna. With more research and an understanding of this species
then more specific policies can be created to protect the pacific tuna.
References
Okada T, Honryo T, Sawada Y, Agawa T, Miyashita S, Ishibashi Y. 2014.
The cause of death of juvenile Pacific Bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalls)
reared in sea net cages. Aqua Eng. 59: 23-25.

Burgess MG, Polasky S, Tilman D. 2013. Predicting overfishing and

extinction threats in multispecies fisheries. PNAS. 110(40): 1593415948.
Morato T, Hoyle SD, Allain V, Nicol SJ. 2010. Tuna longline fishing
around west and central Pacific seamounts. PLoS ONE: 5(12): 1-7.