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EAST COAST TUNA ASSOCIATION 



P.O. Box 447. Salem, N.H. 03079 

 (603) 898-8862 FAX 898-2026 



Press Release October 14, 1993 



The East Coast Tuna Association believes that the 1993 draft report of 

 the Bluefin Working Group, dominated by scientists from Miami, is 

 incomplete due to the failure to adequately address and consider the 

 Impacts of substantial catches coming from within 150 miles of the 

 arbitrary 45° dividing line currently used to support the "two stock 

 worsting hypothesis*. Therefore, the draft report findings, especially 

 those related to the estimates of stock size for the hypothetical western 

 component and replacement yield are invalid and should not be used as a 

 basis for establishing or recommending the U.S. policy position at ICCAT 

 in November. The Bluefin Working Group must reconvene prior to the SCRS 

 meeting in late October and incorporate the bluefin catches from western 

 Atlantic contiguous fisheries. We believe that the controversial line must 

 either be eliminated or, at least, appropriately shifted to the east. 



BLUEFIN TUNA FACTS 



1 . U.S. fishermen now catch Ims than 3% of the total Atlantic bluefin catch; 



2. U.S. fishermen have had our quota reduced by 65% since 1981 while Europe and 

 Mediterranean fisheries have incrsased catchM of bluefin by 41%. Bluefin fisheries in 

 the western Atlantic are now restncted to a small catch of about 20,000 fish while about 4 

 million or more are caught in the unrestricted fisheries in the Atlantic and Mediterranean; 



3. U.S. has strict enforcement of protection of small bluefin tunas while eastern Atlantic fishing 

 nations catch two to three million baby bluefins every year; 



4. U.S. fishermen protect bluefin when they migrate through Quif of Mexico while east Atlantic 

 and Mediterranean nations target spawning bluefin for luxury roe product; 



5. U.S. minimum size is four times larger than the minimum size flagrantly violated in East; 



6. U.S. fishery, each year, is shut down at the height of the season when fish are abundant and 

 most valuable and whereupon their annual migrations across the Atlantic subject them to 

 unrestricted fishing in the unregulated eastern fisheries; 



7. All U.S. bluefin fishermen do more to conserve bluefin than fishermen from any other 

 country in the world and we are no longer going to carry alone the burden of consen/ing Atlantic 

 bluefin tuna. We demand that our Govt and scientists stop offering up our fishery for unilateral 

 quota cuts. The new U.S. policy must be based on a fair and equitable distribution of the 

 conservation burden for Atlantic tuna. We will not support further bluefin foreign aid for the 

 eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean fis'hing nations. 



