As some people have feared, this year's Bluefin Tuna fishery on PEI has added to the glut on the markets, resulting in low prices and few buyers. It was reported that some fisherman have been disposing of the fish in woods and fields. This is really sad and shows very poor management of this species at a time when bluefin's are under very heavy pressure from overfishing and now the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico's BP's oil spill.

Prices for tuna caught off P.E.I.'s North Shore last week were poor, and buyers could not be found at all for some fish, leaving fishermen to figure out how to get rid of the catch.

The whole of the quota for the fall fishery was caught in two days last week. The bonanza came just a week after Nova Scotia fishermen raced through their own quota. Both regions compete for the same international market, and the resulting glut has depressed prices.

Walter Bruce, chair of the P.E.I. Tuna Advisory Council, said a few fishermen are getting prices as high as $16 a pound, but most tuna is going for much less.

The council warned Island fishermen there would be a glut of tuna on the market if they caught the entire quota in a few days, Bruce said. The council advised stretching the season over a few weeks.

Tuna goes to coyote feed
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/10/12/pei-tuna-...

Using satellite data from the European Space Agency, researchers estimate that over 20% of juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico were killed by the BP oil spill. Although that percentage may not seem catastrophic, the losses are on top of an 82% decline in the overall population over the past three decades due to overfishing. The population plunge has pushed the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to categorize the fish as Critically Endangered, its highest rating before extinction.

Given the perilous state of bluefin tuna worldwide, the US National Marine Fisheries Service announced in September, following the BP oil spill, that it would consider listing the species under the Endangered Species Act.

"This study confirms our worst fears about the oil spill’s impacts on bluefin tuna and provides more evidence that this species needs the Endangered Species Act to survive," said Catherine Kilduff, an oceans program attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The federal government could have predicted the effects of the spill during spawning season prior to the disaster; listing Atlantic bluefin tuna as endangered will prevent such an oversight from ever occurring again."

Already Critically Endangered, bluefin tuna hit hard by BP oil disaster
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/1019-hance_bluefin.html