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Why the Tuna on Your Plate Didn't Run Out · How To Protect The Ocean

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  What if fisheries didn't rely on
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  last-minute political negotiations?
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  What if we already knew exactly how much
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  fish could be caught
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  before the season even started?
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  No guesswork, no
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  lobbying battles, no delays.
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  Just science, rules,
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  and then of course action.
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  That's what harvest
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  strategies are designed to do.
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  And they're one of the biggest reasons
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  why we saw such an
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  important result come to fruition
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  in the tuna fishing industry this year.
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  We're going to talk more about that on
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  Friday with the International Seafood
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  Sustainability
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  Foundation's President Susan Jackson.
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  She's going to talk about their latest
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  state of the stock report.
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  But in the meantime, we're going to go
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  over harvest strategies and why they
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  played such an important role.
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  This is the How to
• 0:49
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• 0:50
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• 0:52
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• 0:54
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• 1:01
  to hear tomorrow's
• 1:02
  story in the day after.
• 1:03
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• 1:04
  episode is going to be a lot of fun.
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  follow button for a long time.
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  Fisheries management followed a
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  predictable pattern.
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  Scientists would run stock assessments
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  and say, hey, we need to reduce fishing.
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  But the governments would meet, negotiate
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  and often compromise.
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  Not based on science, based on politics.
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  And to be honest, I hate to say it.
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  It still happens today.
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  And you know, that led and it continues
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  to lead to problems.
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  And at one point, only 66 percent of the
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  tuna catch came from stocks not
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  experiencing overfishing.
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  So the system existed, but it wasn't
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  working fast enough.
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  And that gap between science and decision
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  making is exactly what harvest strategies
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  were designed to fix.
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  Now, one thing that's that's interesting
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  when you look at the cod fisheries just
• 1:58
  to compare fishery, the collapse of the
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  cod fishery in the early 1990s didn't
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  just happen in the 1990s.
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  It started to happen 15 years before that
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  or even before that.
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  But within those the 70s and 80s, we had
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  stock assessments done every year.
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  And we knew scientists, new government
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  scientists were saying, hey, by the way,
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  this stock is not doing very well.
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  You know, Haddock and Halibut weren't
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  doing very well either. And they started
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  to decline and they were declining pretty
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  fast until the early 1990s when fishing
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  experts and scientists were like, you
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  know what, we can't fish this anymore.
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  We're going to have to close the fishery.
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  And that led to a huge uproar in
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  Newfoundland and other areas and other
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  provinces in Canada that fully, full
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  fledgedly relied on cod fishery.
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  Right. That was their big thing. After
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  that, their families, the next
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  generations had to switch
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  industries and do something else.
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  A lot of them went into the oil and gas
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  industry, not an industry
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  that they wanted to go into.
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  They want to go into the fisheries
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  industry, but they were led to believe
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  that everything was fine.
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  Maybe a little bit of pressure from the
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  fisheries unions and so forth.
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  But it just those political decisions
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  just didn't help in any kind of way. So
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  to make sure that management is done
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  properly, harvest strategies in the tuna
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  fishing industry have been
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  put into place. So what is a harvest
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  strategy? It's a simple concept.
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  Essentially what it is, it's a pre-age
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  set of rules. Instead of negotiating
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  every year, managers decide in advance.
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  If the fish stock is healthy, we can
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  increase the catch. If the stock
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  declines, we reduce the catch. If it
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  drops too low, strict limits are kicked
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  in. So based on these rules, there are
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  certain actions that the fisheries
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  management can take.
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  Instead of debating what to do, the
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  system already knows what to do because
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  they follow science as the guide.
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  Imagine if the science says and continues
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  to say that the cod fishery is not doing
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  very well. Not as well as we think. Right
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  now, present day in Canada, the cod
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  fishery is not doing well.
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  So the scientists come out and say, hey,
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  you know what, it grew but it didn't grow
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  significantly. Actually, one year it
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  stayed the same. So what do we do? We
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  should stop. We shouldn't increase the
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  quota. We should probably reduce it a
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  little bit because we know that it's
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  going to start declining
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  if we continue at this rate.
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  And then the government turns around and
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  goes and negotiates and says, hey, you
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  know what? We're actually going to
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  increase. We're going to allow offshore
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  cod stocks to be fished. Well, that
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  doesn't make sense, right? Now you're
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  laying offshore boats to fish cod. You're
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  going to start to see a decrease because
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  the science is saying that it's not going
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  to increase anytime soon. It could
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  decrease with the fishing pressure that
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  we have now. If they follow the harvest
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  strategies, if the stock starts to
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  decline or stays the same, then the
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  limits don't change. They don't add
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  another fishery on top of that. So they're going to increase.
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  So it's basically looking at the set of
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  rules, right? It's a very simple process.
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  And the thing is, it works. You know,
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  harvest strategies work because they
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  change the system in three big ways.
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  First, they remove politics out of it,
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  which makes it so, so, so much easier.
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  Second, they respond faster because they
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  know what action to take.
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  They already, it's already predetermined.
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  And third, they rely on data, like actual
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  scientific data. They go out and observe,
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  they collect the data, field data, they
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  do it with the proper methods, and then
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  they act on what the
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  data tells them to do.
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  Now, today, we're starting to see that
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  success, which we're going to talk about
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  on Friday with Susan Jackson. And it's,
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  it's not a small improvement. It's a
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  huge, huge improvement. It's really a
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  system level shift. That's the, that's
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  the big thing that you're going to hear
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  on Friday. And I think it's,
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  I think it's really important.
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  This type of harvest strategy, it just
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  doesn't come out out of thin air, right?
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  Just didn't happen because one
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  organization, it happened because an
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  alignment across an entire system. So the
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  International Seafood Sustainability
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  Foundation helped fund and
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  improve stock assessments.
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  They brought industry data into the
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  science models. They push for science
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  based decisions and the United Voices
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  across the supply chain. That's a huge
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  thing to do. Not many people have been
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  able to do that in the past. To be able
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  to come forward with that,
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  and I mean, ISSF is in itself, you know,
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  supported and represented by the supply
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  chain, not the Fishers, but the supply
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  chain. And there's science scientists
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  involved. There's policymakers involved.
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  There's a whole bunch of people,
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  industry, industry exacts and so forth
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  involved. It's a, it's a big deal. And to
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  be able to put all that information, put
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  all of that effort into making the system
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  better and to shift like this and to get
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  to results that we're going to discuss on Friday.
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  I think is even better. So even companies
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  that like share detailed purchase data,
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  which you never get to improve
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  assessment. That's a huge, huge deal
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  because better data leads to better
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  management, especially when you have
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  these harvest strategies in place, right?
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  So another major driver was market
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  pressure. So the Marine Stewardship
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  Council certification process requires
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  that they have harvest strategies and
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  their science based management. So fisheries that are available, they're available.
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  So fisheries that wanted certification
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  had to adapt. So and they did in 2012
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  100,000 tons of tuna were certified today
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  2.5 million tons, about half of the
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  global catch is certified. That's a huge
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  shift, right? Not in a lot of like in a
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  very small amount of time, especially
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  when you consider how things have changed
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  over the years and over
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  the decades with fisheries.
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  So it shows that markets can actually
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  drive conservation, just like we talked
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  about last week with businesses, right?
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  How they can scale and how they can move
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  things faster. But fishers weren't just
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  out of the process. They were also
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  included in the process and and they are
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  not separate from this story.
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  You know, they're actually central to it.
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  So they pushed for certification. They
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  advocated to governments and they change
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  practices on the water because at the end
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  of the day, if nothing changes at sea,
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  nothing changes at all.
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  And eventually we're going to start to
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  see the extirpation or even extinction of
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  tuna because of fisheries. We do not want
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  tuna to be overfished by any means.
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  So this is bigger than than just tuna,
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  though. Harvest strategies prove
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  something important. Fisheries can
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  recover, systems can improve and
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  collaboration works. It's
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  really what it comes down to.
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  But only if science is followed, rules
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  are clear and accountability exists. This
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  is what real ocean protection looks like.
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  It's about collaboration, science and
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  action. That's what it
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  really comes down to.
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  And I love this process. I wish we could
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  see it more because we're not finished,
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  right? Some of the gaps that we see
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  within this. These harvest strategies
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  remain like not all stocks have fully
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  implemented harvest strategy.
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  So we need to make sure that the tuna
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  fishing stocks have that monitoring and
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  compliance need improvement technology
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  like electronic monitoring is underused
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  and climate change is
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  reshaping ecosystems.
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  The next milestone is clear. 100% of the
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  tuna stocks must have fully tested
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  harvest strategies. So all the rules need
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  to be put in place. All the actions need
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  to be put in place depending on what the
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  results are from the scientific data. So
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  not just planned, it
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  has to be working 100%.
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  Harvest strategies turn fisheries
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  management from reactive into proactive.
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  And that is a huge mind shift for a lot
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  of fisheries. It removes all the
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  guesswork, right? They reduce conflict.
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  And when applied properly, they work at
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  bringing back fisheries. It works. We've
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  seen it in a bunch of different tuna
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  fisheries where we're going to talk about
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  on Friday. It's such an important aspect.
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  So I want you to really think about what
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  harvest rates are because you know, a lot
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  of times if I say harvest strategies are
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  important, you probably like how does
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  this actually matter if you want tuna to
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  continue and you want
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  other fish to continue.
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  Harvest strategy should be in every
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  fishery, every wild fishery harvest
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  should be in whether it's ocean or
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  freshwater. I strongly believe that rules
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  should be put in place. It should be
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  guided by science and it should be bought
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  in by every part of the process.
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  And we're seeing it here where
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  organizations are coming together,
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  industries coming together, scientists
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  are coming together under one umbrella to
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  work together. And the guidance is
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  provided by the International Seafood
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  Sustainability Foundation, which we love
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  to have that. We're going to hear more
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  about that in on Friday in two days from
• 10:25
  Susan Jackson, who's the president of
• 10:26
  ISSF. She's going to be talking about the
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  big result that they got, but also about
• 10:30
  harvest strategies,
• 10:31
  stock assessments and more.
• 10:33
  So if you don't want to miss that
• 10:35
  episode, hit the follow button right now
• 10:37
  or come back on Friday or come back
• 10:39
  tomorrow because we're going to be
• 10:39
  talking about more fun
• 10:41
  stuff about tuna stocks.
• 10:43
  And it's going to be important. It's
• 10:44
  always important. It's always important
• 10:45
  to you, especially if you like seafood.
• 10:47
  So hit that follow button. I want to
• 10:49
  thank you for joining me on today's
• 10:50
  episode of the How to Protect the Ocean
• 10:51
  podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 10:53
  Have a great day. We'll talk to you
• 10:54
  tomorrow and happy conservation.