Bluefin tuna not endangered, say P.E.I. fishermen

P.E.I. fishermen are confident the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans won't agree to list Atlantic bluefin tuna as endangered, even though a committee of Canadian scientists wants to see the fishery suspended.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is calling for the tuna fishery to end under Canada's Species at Risk Act.

The deadline for public comment to DFO is today. The federal Minister of Fisheries is expected to make a decision about the fishery sometime in the new year.

But one P.E.I.'s 360 tuna fishermen, Kenny Drake says, these days, there is so much tuna around, fishermen are almost guaranteed to catch one their first day.

"So can you compare that with where I used to fish for all summer for three fish?" said Drake

P.E.I.'s Fisheries Minister Ron MacKinley doesn't think the tuna belong on the endangered species list.

"If we started seeing the numbers dropping off or something here, then I might want to take a stronger look at it. But the catch seems to be increasing," MacKinley said.

Breeding stock down

But just because P.E.I. fishermen say they're seeing more tuna doesn't mean the overall population is healthy, said marine biologist Alan Sinclair, co-chair of the COSEWIC marine fish subcommittee, which is urging these fish be protected.

"I think what's being seen locally off North Lake, it could well be that's where the last tuna is going to show up," Sinclair said.

Numbers of breeding adult bluefin have plummeted 69 per cent since 1970 — from 265,000 to 66,000 — despite years of restrained fishing, Sinclair said.

That's why he and the other committee members want the tuna on the endangered species list.

If fishing continues at current levels, Sinclair believes bluefin on this side of the Atlantic will be gone in 100 years.

"In my mind it would be a shame to ignore that and let them go extinct. It doesn't seem right to me."

Bluefin tuna is one of the most highly sought-after fish species in the world with buyers from Japan and the U.S. paying thousands of dollars per fish.

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