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New rules for Chilean sea bass fall short, environmentalists say
2nd May 2003
(ENS)
WASHINGTON, DC
The federal government announced new rules Thursday aimed at stopping the import of illegally caught Chilean sea bass, but environmentalists say the measures fall short of their goal.
Chilean sea bass is the now common name for the Patagonia toothfish, a deep water species caught in southern waters near and around Antarctica.
Consumption of the fish as skyrocketed over the past decade, leading to rampant overfishing of a species that takes 10 years to reach reproductive maturity.
The United States imports some 10,000 tons of Chilean sea bass annually.
According to the rules announced by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), U.S. seafood dealers wishing to import Chilean sea bass are now required to get pre-approval from the agency before shipments of the fish of more than 4,400 pounds enter the country.
The regulations, most of which enter effect May 31, serve to redefine the document system used to track Chilean sea bass catches and ban U.S. imports from two zones designated by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
These zones cover waters surrounding Antarctica that have long been recognized by the international governmental body that regulates the trade of Chilean sea bass, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), as "laundering points" for pirate fishermen who illegally catch fish inside CCAMLR's waters and then claim to have caught them in areas where it is scientifically unlikely that populations exist to support these claims.
Environmental groups welcomed the regulations, but contend that much more drastic action is needed to stem the decline of the species and to limit the harmful bycatch gathered by illegal fishing of the fish.
"Unless the U.S. prohibits the import of catches claimed as being caught in unregulated high seas areas, NMFS will still not be able to prevent illegal toothfish from entering the U.S. even if it is accompanied by a validated catch document," said Karen Sack, fisheries coordinator with The Antarctica Project. "The pirate fishermen will just start claiming that their fish were caught in other high seas areas that are not regulated by the United States," Sack explained.
Several organizations continue to urge chefs and consumers to pass on Chilean sea bass until stricter measures are put in place and aggressively enforced.
"While we applaud NMFS's acknowledgement of the problem and their effort to stop the import of illegal toothfish into the United States, it will fall far short of stopping the flood of illegal Chilean sea bass that winds up on dinner plates all across the country," said Andrea Kavanagh, campaign manager for the National Environmental Trust's Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass campaign.
"[This] is why we are still encouraging chefs to stop serving this fish until there are safeguards in place to ensure that all the toothfish that enters this country has been legally caught," said Kavanagh.
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