Pacific bluefin tuna isn’t endangered, feds declare

The Trump administration on Monday announced that a sushi restaurant staple — Pacific bluefin tuna — is not in danger of becoming extinct, despite historically low numbers.

The bullet-shaped Pacific bluefin, prized for its fatty flesh, often appears on sushi menus as maguro or toro. While their numbers were down to 1.6 million individuals and 143,000 mature adults in 2014, the West Coast region of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Monday that Pacific bluefin tuna will not be placed on the list of the world’s endangered species.

Data showed that the “spawning stock biomass” for Pacific bluefin tuna steadily declined from 1996 to 2010, NOAA said, but “the decline appears to have ceased since 2010, although the stock remains near the historic low.”

The number of Pacific bluefin tuna has rebounded before, NOAA emphasized, meaning its population likely will increase enough to stave off a risk of extinction.

“Our decision is based on the best scientific and commercial data available, as required by the Endangered Species Act,” NOAA said in a statement.

NOAA said it reviewed 25 threats to the species, including overfishing, climate change and water pollution “and concluded that the overall risk of extinction is low.”

Doug Fetterly, chairman of the Sierra Club’s National Marine Team and a member of the Oahu group of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, was one of the environmentalists around the country who asked NOAA to list the Pacific bluefin as endangered.

Fetterly was not surprised by NOAA’s decision, given Trump’s attitude toward the environment that includes a review of 27 national monuments, including the Papa­hanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which mandates protections for tuna.

At twice the size of Texas, Papahanaumokuakea in the Northwest Hawaiian islands is the world’s largest protected marine area.

“There are considerable folks in NOAA who want to do the right thing for our environment, but NOAA’s under new direction now with the Trump administration,” Fetterly said. “Conservation is the smart thing to do. We can’t just overfish if the fish is going to survive and if the ecosystem is going to survive. It’s foolish and it’s stupid.”

NOAA said that Japan is responsible for more than half of all the Pacific bluefin caught in recent years, followed by Mexico.

Out of all the tuna species, bluefins travel the greatest distance and are considered among the fastest of all fish, burning through the ocean at speeds of 12 to 18 mph, according to NOAA.

Pacific bluefin tuna spawn in the Western Pacific between central Japan and the northern Philippines and in the Sea of Japan, according to NOAA.

They typically arrive off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, at the age of 1, NOAA said, and migrate back to the Western Pacific to spawn.

The trip from Mexico to Western Pacific waters can be as short as 55 days.