Student Notes

Chapter 12: Tuna Student notes

Chapter 12 explores the issues surrounding the history of tuna, including overharvesting and bycatch. Tuna are particularly known for the issues related to dolphin bycatch, the consumer boycott of tuna, and the eventual “dolphin safe” labels that now appear on the vast majority of tuna products. This chapter will address the advantages and disadvantages of green consumerism, the political economy of the tuna industry, and the ethics of marine species and ecosystem management.

Blood tuna 1. Annual catches for some species of tuna number in billions of pounds per year. Tuna are some of the most valuable fish in the ocean and, consequently, the tuna industry a highly lucrative one. 2. Despite its economic profitability, the tuna industry is also one of the most ecologically detrimental to the world’s oceans. 3. The history of the tuna that we eat is not apparent when it is sitting on the plate, so this chapter will trace the tuna economy, management of oceans, and ethics in economics.

A short history of tuna 1. “Tuna” is a colloquial name for a group of similar fish species belonging to the family Scombridae that have a similar morphology. 2. Tuna swim fast and they have great stamina, two factors that contribute to their ability to make some of the longest migrations of any animal. Seasonal migrations of some species are 4,000+ miles, making tuna a complicated fish to “manage” effectively. Since they travel among many different countries, it is difficult to manage tuna stocks with conventional, national laws. 3. Why study tuna? a. Tuna are a familiar commodity to most of us. b. Tuna are representative of the many overfishing and collateral damage crises facing the world’s oceans.

Bluefin tuna: from horse mackerel to ranched sushi 1. Bluefin tuna are among the earliest marine species to become a harvested fish stock in marine fisheries. 2. Bluefin tuna have not always been such a commercially valuable catch. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when the Japanese diet expanded to include bluefin (called ‘maguro’). As its popularity as a component of sashimi exploded, demand for bluefin increased very rapidly and techniques for harvesting them were made much more efficient. The result of such heavy harvesting has been massive overfishing of the bluefin. 3. Over time, fishers have developed more sophisticated techniques to maximize their catch sizes (and profitability). a. In the case of bluefin tuna, fish are gathered by purse-seine fishing. This fishing method involves the use of a net that encircles the school of fish whose bottom is subsequently drawn shut, confining the catch in the net.

of 7 b. Another industrial fishing technique is known as longliners in which lines with hundreds or thousands of hooks are deployed. c. The catch of industrial bluefin fishing is often transported to “tuna ranches,” where young tuna are reared for human consumption. Tuna ranching has led to a decline in wild bluefin, adding more pressure to the already comprised bluefin populations. This added pressure is due to two factors: i. The tuna ranching industry is almost entirely unregulated (with tuna caught for ranching not even counting toward legal catch quotas) ii. The manner in which the ranching occurs impacts the age structure of wild populations (with younger tuna now having greater value) 4. Combined, these industrial fishing techniques have resulted in large-scale overfishing of bluefin to a point well past sustainable levels. Bluefin are not the only overfished species in the ocean though. Other species such as the Chilean sea bass and Atlantic cod are also ‘red-listed’ as some of the most ecologically problematic commercially available fish species. 5. Another detrimental effect of modern large-scale fishing operations is bycatch, which are the non-targeted organisms incidentally caught. Bycatch is not limited to fish species but also includes birds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.

The Eastern Tropical Pacific yellowfin tuna fishery 1. Yellowfin tuna, though usually used for canned tuna, are no less lucrative than bluefin. In fact, the yellowfin tuna industry in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) Ocean is one of the largest and most heavily fished tuna fisheries in the world. 2. The ETP covers 18 million km2, stretching from southern California along the South American coast to Chile. 3. Large-scale commercial fishing in the ETP emerged in the 1930’s with the advent of better refrigeration and storage techniques. The US fishing industry played a major role in the area, using traditional cotton nets and, later, pole and line fishing. 4. In the 1950’s, cheap, imported yellowfin flooded the US market, the pole and line techniques became obsolete and US yellowfin fisheries appeared doomed to fail. Two technological innovations—nylon nets and more powerful power blocks—essentially saved the fleet. Purse-seine fishing soon followed, with nearly all ETP boats employing this industrial fishing technique to catch schools of yellowfin. The profitability and productivity of yellowfish fisheries were saved. However, the advent of purse-seine yellowfin fishing was to have detrimental impacts on other species, particularly dolphins. 5. For reasons unknown to science, schools of yellowfin tuna are almost always found underneath schools of dolphins. The widely known fact leads fishers to locate yellowfin by the presence of dolphins (this location technique is called “dolphin setting”). Fishers using the purse-seine method subsequently produced a great deal of bycatch of dolphins that would become trapped in the nylon nets with no avenue for escape. As a result, dolphin deaths associated with purse-seine yellowfin fishing numbered in hundreds of thousands per year. 6. At the peak of dolphin mortalities, the US environmental movement was taking off with increased attention being paid to marine mammal conservation. Concerns regarding the ‘tuna-dolphin problem’ skyrocketed, and the fate of the yellowfin tuna was on the verge of change.

of 7 The puzzle of tuna 1. Societal changes, including changing taste preferences, technological developments, and a globalizing economy, greatly impact the way we understand our relationship to important species like tuna. As a result, the puzzle of tuna centers around the following contradictions of fact: a. Tuna are not bounded by the same political borders as other species, yet their fate is tied into global geopolitical decisions. b. Tuna are too valuable for their own good as insatiable demand cannot be met by such a finite resource base. c. Tuna, as a commercial product, remain too readily available on the marketplace despite the decline in wild populations. d. Tuna have poorly understood relationships with other marine species making it nearly impossible to harvest tuna without negatively impacting other species.

Markets and commodities: eco-Labels to the rescue? 1. Overharvested and overfished marine species are a widespread problem. But can consuming the right fish save our oceans? 2. According to advocates of green consumerism, market forces can be harnessed to change the behavior of firms and industries through responsible consumer purchasing. In other words, to create more sustainable business practices, we must buy the right things. (Refer back to Chapter 3 about green consumerism.) 3. One example of green consumerism is the ‘dolphin safe’ label of the canned tuna industry, a topic discussed in more detail below.

Attempts at solutions through legislation 1. The outcry of environmental activists in the 1960’s eventually led to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which prohibited the killing or commercial exchange of marine mammals. Though an encouraging start to better marine mammal conservation, the MMPA had some major contradictions, namely: a. MMPA mandated that tuna fisheries be managed for ‘optimum sustained populations.’ b. Yet the MMPA also allowed for dolphin kills so long as their populations were not reduced below biologically acceptable thresholds. c. At the same time, the MMPA mandated a reduction in dolphin mortality to zero mortality over time. 2. In the years that followed, the MMPA was amended to include more dolphin-friendly commercial fishing techniques, which ultimately led to a substantial decline in dolphin mortality. a. 1974: The ‘backdown procedure’ and a ‘Medina panel’ were implemented. b. 1984: Annual dolphin mortalities resulting from the US fleet’s activities were capped at 20,500.

Consumer activists to the rescue 1. Despite legislation advances in tackling the ‘tuna-dolphin problem’, US consumers remained frustrated with high dolphin mortality levels resulting from the tuna industry. By the 1980’s, a consumer boycott of canned tuna products was underway.

of 7 2. The boycott grew in strength, leading to declining sales, a massive letter writing campaign, and, most significantly, the call for ‘dolphin safe’ tuna labeling. 3. By 1990, the three largest US tuna brands, who together form 90% of the market share, embraced the ‘dolphin safe’ label, agreeing to purchase only tuna from suppliers meeting the label’s requirements of tuna harvesting not involving the pursuit or capture of dolphins. 4. Moreover, the US Congress also passed a trade embargo preventing the importing of tuna from any countries not following practices similar to the United States’. This move led to Mexico, Venezuela, and Panama becoming completely shut out of the US tuna market, which was a devastating blow to these tuna-producing nations.

The label stays intact 1. Over time, attempts were made by both industry and presidential administrations to water down the ‘dolphin safe’ label because the embargo on non-labeled tuna is seen to violate free trade agreements. a. Latin American tuna companies were particularly harmed by the ban on the sale of non-labeled tuna, and several countries sued the U.S. over the issue. b. But these attempts have largely failed due to the success of the label. 2. Not only has dolphin mortality decline to a fraction of the 1960 levels, but the campaign to solve the ‘tuna-dolphin problem’ led to real, measurable changes in the market. In this way, market forces appear to have been successfully used for conservation efforts. 3. Not all ‘dolphin safe’ labels adhere to the same standards as the US, leading some to question the overall impact of the practice. More importantly, ‘dolphin safe’ is not equivalent to eco-friendly or ecologically sustainable, as tuna harvesting continues to exert extreme pressure on ocean ecosystems. 4. Broadly speaking, green certification and labeling movements are changing the dynamics of consumer markets and could be eventually led to more meaningful modifications to commonly accepted business practices.

Political economy: re-regulating fishery economies The political economy approach to human-environment interactions differs from the markets and commodities approach in one important way. The former assumes the market can solve environmental problems, while the latter asserts that capitalist production is the root cause of these problems and no matter hard you try the problems cannot ever be solved.

So let’s not be so quick to assume… 1. Yellowfin tuna industry is an example of the second contradiction of capitalism insofar as fishers were degrading their own resource base to the point that their own actions comprised their livelihood practices. a. Increased market demand for yellowfin led to a change in the means of production (i.e., boats and purse-seine nets) and the cutthroat competition of the industry that now damages not only the environment but also threatens the very conditions of production (i.e., material and environmental conditions) that allow the industry to function in the first place. By being so successful at harvesting tuna, they risk eradicating the very tuna they depend on.

of 7 2. Without global capitalism, it is possible that the means of production (i.e., infrastructure, equipment, machinery, etc.) would have never changed. It was the global tuna markets that drove the increase in price that led to the desire to increase catch at a cheaper cost of production. 3. According to the political economy perspective, the greatest irony operating in the tale of tuna fishing lies in the fact that workers in the tuna industry failed to realize their own roles in sustaining their livelihoods. Because the ‘mere’ workers did not own or control the boats or processing facilities, they did not fight against the change in the means of production that now appears to be putting them out of work (and negatively impacts the conditions of production that allowed the tuna industry to thrive). 4. The political economy approach to explaining the tuna industry is a powerful one for two main reasons: a. It draws attention to the pressures exerted on both the environment and human societies by capitalist accumulation. b. It provides insight into the ways in which resources, may they be tuna or trees, are exploited.

Geopolitics of tuna 1. Maximum sustainable yield is the largest seasonal or annual amount of any particular natural resource that can be harvested indefinitely. 2. In tuna fisheries, the implementation of the maximum sustainable in the tuna industry led to a ‘race to harvest’ with bigger boats and nets. This first-come, first-serve race to catch tuna has resulted in a more complicated fishing situation than ever before. 3. A result of the highly complex yellowfin tuna industry has been the implementation of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the ETP. These zones represent a new form of sea ownership in which countries claim 200 miles out from their coast as their property. Establishing an EEZ protects a country’s fishing stock insofar as the fish remain within this 200 mile coastal zone.

From a Fordist to a Post-Fordist fishery 1. Fordism is what political economists refer to as “relations of production that combine high wages, mass production, and mass consumption” (p.216). Fordism is characterized by a vertical integration of domestic corporations and tariffs against foreign competition. a. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s the US dominated the fishing industry, providing a quintessential example of Fordism. The US was home to the three largest producers of canned tuna while also being home to one of the world’s largest tuna fishing fleets. Tuna processing facilities often owned the vessels providing them with tuna, making the US tuna industry highly vertically integrated during this period. The state maintained its power and authority through implementing the MMPA and subsequent trade embargoes acted as tariffs against foreign competition. 2. Post-Fordism is marked by decentralized, specialized, and often subcontracted production, the prominence of transnational corporations (TNCs), and diminished state power. The current relations of production in most industrialized countries can be characterized as Post-Fordist.

of 7 a. From the mid-1980’s forward, the global tuna industry restructured as falling demand led to decreased prices and a crisis of overproduction. Today, vertical integration is a thing of the past with TNCs now being the major players in the tuna industry. As described in this chapter, “the tuna ‘company’ is now merely a ‘brand’ owned by a large TNC that searches the globe for the least expensive materials and labor to assemble its products” (p.217).

Post-Fordist regulation: The Marine Stewardship Council 1. With the rise of Post-Fordism, traditional methods of regulation have become less feasible and somewhat unjustifiable. As a result, new means of regulation can emerge. 2. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an example of a post-Fordist regulatory system. Guided by the mission of providing market-based incentives for the sustainable harvesting of seafood, the MSC seeks to reduce (if not ameliorate) overfishing in the world’s oceans. 3. Like the ‘dolphin safe’ label, the MSC label has to be earned by meeting the requirements of the organization. Important to note here is the fact that the MSC label is designed to be an eco-friendly label because its goal is the sustainability of the world’s oceans. 4. Despite its lofty goals, the MSC label is not without its critics. From a social justice perspective, attaining MSC certification is not an equal opportunity situation in which a company, no matter its size and resource base, can apply for and receive MSC certification. Certification takes capital and connections, and not all companies have these resources. 5. The take home lesson is this: check what processes go on behind the label, because green certification is not as simple as it seems.

Ethics and Ecocentrism: The Social Construction of Charismatic Species Although the consumer boycott may be considered a conservation victory for dolphins, the unsustainable harvest of tuna and other fish continues. This apparent contradiction may be explained in part by the tendency to favor the ethics of animal rights rather than ecological sustainability.

Rights for “noble creatures”: the case against dolphin-setting 1. Efforts in conservation or ecology tend to focus on species rather than systems or individual animals. a. This ecological ethic means that it is okay to kill an individual animal as long as the species is not threatened. 2. In comparison, the animal rights ethic calls for moral extensionism, meaning equal consideration (although not necessarily equal treatment) for non-human species. a. Thus, the animal rights ethic opposes wrong actions taken against individual animals, which should have rights because they suffer. 3. Therefore, the emphasis on the dolphin deaths instead of ecosystem failure can be described as preference for the animal rights ethic over the ecological ethic. 4. So why do the activists not care about the tuna who are being mutilated and killed? Why is there a stronger emphasis on the prevention of mammal species’ suffering and mortality?

of 7 a. Dolphins are socially constructed as charismatic species with interests valued by humans. b. Tuna are socially constructed as just fish, or just food.

Can a rights victory produce an ecological defeat? 1. Oceans are managed predominantly with the goal of maximum harvest (or maximum profit), rather than the ecological ethic. 2. When all tuna sold in the U.S. became dolphin-safe, the boats started using other means to find tuna schools. a. Some started finding tuna under logs instead of dolphins, which results in fewer dolphin kills, but many times more bycatch of other marine species. b. Others started fishing in other fisheries without the dolphin problem, so other fisheries are being overexploited more rapidly. 3. Thus, the green certification process guarantees only the minimization of dolphin kills, but may actually exacerbate existing unsustainable harvesting of other species and the destruction of ecosystems.