White Marlin Need International Solution

 HOUSTON, TX – Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) has intervened in a misguided lawsuit filed in Federal District Court seeking to have white marlin listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Center for Biological Diversity, based in Denver, and the Turtle Island Restoration Network, based in San Francisco, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in an attempt to force Atlantic white marlin to be listed as “threatened” or “endangered” as defined by the ESA. This action would effectively close all fishing effort for this and other Highly Migratory Species while providing no conservation benefit to white marlin.

“Any regulation enacted under an ESA listing would not apply to foreign citizens, the high seas or foreign countries. All regulations would apply to U.S. citizens only,” said David Cummins, CCA president. “An ESA listing would misdirect an overwhelming amount of regulatory effort at domestic recreational fishermen who land fewer than 50 white marlin annually. Even the complete elimination of the U.S. longline fleet will not halt the decline of white marlin.”

Regulations aimed at international longliners were implemented by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2001 and require nations to significantly reduce their landings of white marlin from the 1999 level. The same measure allows the United States to conduct a directed recreational fishery for white marlin so long as the landings do not exceed 250 fish for both white and blue marlin combined.

These controls, which only came into effect in 2001, are the primary conservation measures to halt the further decline of white marlin. NMFS, in a review to determine whether white marlin ought to be listed under the ESA in 2002, concluded it was too early to tell whether the ICCAT measures were adequate and declined to list the species. By most accounts, nations have reduced the landings of white marlin, but the effectiveness of these reductions on the stock may not be known until 2006.

“Science has determined that white marlin stocks are in serious trouble and, as a conservation group, CCA is working for effective conservation measures to recover this species,” said Fred Miller, chairman of CCA’s Government Relations Committee. “At the same time, CCA has been involved in this issue long enough to know that domestic measures are not the answer. The future of white marlin is tied directly to the 1,800 or so foreign longliners operating hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic.”

CCA advocates a long-term solution for white marlin that controls both foreign and domestic longline fleets through continued participation in ICCAT.

“Most of the domestic rules in place today for billfish are a result of CCA’s efforts, including a billfish plan that made marlin the first federal game fish, but the next step for this species lies with international regulation,” said Miller. “The proposal to list white marlin appears to be good conservation, but it would treat an extremely minor symptom with radical surgery while ignoring the disease.”

The American Sportfishing Association has also intervened in the lawsuit.