By: Ashley B.
Stephanie M.
Tara C.
 The Atlantic ocean is full of millions of fish, but many
people are unaware of fish being endangered because of
overfishing in the oceans.
 According to researchers, the population of reproductive
adult Bluefin tuna living in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean has
decreased by 90% in the last 40 years.
 Most of the Bluefin Tuna live in the Mediterranean Sea and
east Atlantic Ocean. Bluefin tuna are being over fished
because the Mediterranean sea now supports fishing over its
entire surface.
 Bluefin tuna play a big role in the marine food web. They eat
jellyfish, octopus, crab and sponges. Their predators consist
of killer whales and sharks.
Over 1496 pounds of Bluefin Tuna are
caught each year.
 The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT) is responsible for protecting and regulating the fishing of
Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea. One of the biggest causes of
overfishing is illegal fishing. Researchers have shown that over 20.000
tons of Bluefin tuna have been caught illegally each year.
 Japanese people favor Blue fin tuna to sell in their markets. Since the
Mediterranean Sea supports fishing everywhere, the fishermen use
floating cages to catch up to 150 tons of fish. The cages are then brought
to Japanese farms where they are fattened until they reach the
satisfaction of the farmers. They do this so that when they sell their tuna
to the marketers, they can get them for more than what they are worth.
The price of tuna is determined by their weight.
 The reason overfishing has gotten out of hand
is because large companies are capturing way
too many fish. One way to prevent the
companies from overfishing is for the ICCAT to
enforce the number of fish that are allowed to
be caught. Even though there already is a limit,
it is not affecting fishermen’s actions because
there are no consequences for exceeding the
number limit.
 By having the ICCAT make a law for the limit,
there should also be consequences, such as
getting fined for exceeding the amount of fish
you are allowed to capture. If this continues,
violators will be prosecuted.
 Of course this would upset the fishermen that
work for the markets. By limiting the amount of
Bluefin Tuna that are allowed to be fished, it
would mean that the markets tuna supply and
ability to make products containing tuna would
decrease tremendously.
This picture strongly proves that actions speak louder
than words. The plans of stopping overfishing need to
come to action.
Solution Number 2
 As stated before, the
Mediterranean Sea now
supports fishing over its
entire surface. If preserved
areas are added to the
Mediterranean Sea, the
Bluefin tuna would have a
chance to reproduce and
repopulate themselves,
without the threat of being
captured.
 This would not benefit
some of the other marine
life because those living in
the unpreserved areas
would be more likely to get
captured.
This picture represents the fear that the Bluefin tuna
have to live with.
THE BEST SOLUTION
The best solution to stop the overfishing
of blue fin tuna is Solution #1, for a few
reasons. First, we feel that this rule would be
successful because if consequences are
brought upon the fishermen, they will be
more likely to follow the rules so they don’t
have to pay money or go to jail. Yes the
supply of blue fin in the markets will
decrease, but if a number limit is not put on
the tuna, they will eventually be an extinct
species meaning we would have no food
supply of them at all. Second, we think this
solution would be the best because if
preserves are put into the Mediterranean
sea, eventually the tuna would learn to
migrate to those preserves causing an
overpopulation and mass reproduction. This
would then cause many tuna to die due to
lack of resources. Also if preserves were put
in, there would be few fish for fishers to fish,
once again causing lack of tuna in the open
sea for fisherman to catch, and for us to eat.
The fish still not in the preserves would be
caught, affecting the food chain. Third, if a
number limit is given to fisherman, the fish
that aren’t caught will have the chance to
reproduce to eventually catch up to the
number of tuna lost. By surviving and
reproducing, they can keep their population
steady.
Putting a number limit on the number of blue fin caught by fisherman
will ultimately save their species and put their population number back
on track.
Bibliography

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060724-bluefin-tuna.html


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bluefin-tuna-stocks-threatened-cites-japanmonaco

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/smart_fishing/target_fisheries/bluefin_tuna/tracking_
the_giants/tunamap/

http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/05/02/v-print/3031493/spains-almadraba-fishing-faces.html

http://www.upc.edu/sostenible2015/menu3/Seminaris/Seminari_STD_10/docs/presentacions/grup%
206.pdf

http://itsabiologicalissue.blogspot.com/

http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/campaigns/oceans/marine-reserves/