Researchers have lauded two giant bluefin tunas being caught off the coast of Yorkshire for the first time in more than six decades as a “success story” for marine conservation. The tunas, which were caught a day apart off the coast of Whitby earlier this week, have mostly been absent along the north-east coast of Britain since the 1960s. While a small numbers of the species have been spotted in the waters around Yorkshire in the previous years, the pair were the first to be caught for market from the North Sea since licences to catch the fish were issued in July.
Rodney Forster, a professor at the University of Hull and head of the Hull marine laboratory, called the tuna’s reappearance a “success story about the management of fisheries” in Britain. Bryce Stewart, a senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association, a marine charity based in Plymouth, called the return of bluefin tuna to the UK “fantastic” and lauded the work done by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) to re-establish populations. Both Forster and Stewart mentioned rising temperatures in the North Sea as another factor in the tuna’s return, albeit a less influential one than the management of fisheries.
Stewart said the warmer temperatures have a “sort of knock-on effect” as the small fish that tuna eat, such as herring and sprat, do better in warmer temperatures. Climate change is one of many factors alongside pollution and illegal fishing that could prevent the tuna from properly re-establishing themselves along the Yorkshire coast, but there are hopes that if properly managed they can thrive there and even move into Scottish waters. Calum Duncan, the principal policy specialist at the Marine Conservation Society, lauded the regeneration of the tuna populations, but warned that their continued survival hinged on consistent care and for British fishing policies to place a greater onus on protecting marine ecology.
But we just need to do a lot more of it and need to ramp it up.”
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