Overfishing causes Pacific bluefin tuna numbers to drop 96%

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/09/overfishing-pacific-bluefin-tuna?intcmp=122


The latest data from the international scientific committee which monitors tuna in the Pacific showed bluefin tuna stocks were a small fraction of what they had been and were in danger of all but disappearing. Photograph: Getty

A new assessment of Pacific bluefin tuna shows populations of the fish have fallen by more than 96% as a result oConservationists also warned that the vast majority caught were juveniles and had never reproduced f decades of overfishing, conservationists said.

The latest data from the international scientific committee which monitors tuna in the Pacific showed stocks were a small fraction of what they had been and were in danger of all but disappearing, the Pew Environment Group said.

Fishing vessels continue to catch the species in its only known spawning and nursery areas in the western Pacific, while management in the eastern Pacific is better but still not enough to halt the decline, the environmental group said.

The conservationists also warned that more than 90% of bluefin tuna caught were juveniles and had not had a chance to reproduce before they were killed.