Page 19 - KATE_JOHNSTON_2017

has a joint venture with significant Japanese companies. As I will explain below, bluefin

ranches are controversial in sustainability debates.

th
A bluefin gold rush of the late 20 century, which was augmented by technological

development and a lucrative market, has had devastating effects on the biomass of all bluefin.

And so while skipjack tinned tuna offers a way to analyse the process of rendering

sustainable and visible, Atlantic bluefin offers a different set of problems altogether. It enters

the politics of sustainability as an unsustainable fish in need of governance. It is listed as

endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Although there are all sorts of data

inconsistencies, the regional regulatory body International Commission for the Conservation

of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which is responsible for the monitoring of Atlantic bluefin,

estimates that stocks have declined by at least 50% over the past four decades (ICCAT 2015a,

p. 95). Atlantic bluefin is currently considered overexploited and the subject of a multiannual

recovery plan governed by ICCAT. The plan involves input controls which limit fishing

through Total Allowable Catch (TAC), Individual Transferable Quota (ITQs), designated

fishing periods, and the increased presence of scientific observers and guards. Bluefin is thus

at the centre of much conflict and considered by some groups, such as Greenpeace as an

unsustainable option (G Monti 2013, pers. comm. 25 June; N Pelle-Savage 2015, pers.

comm. 25 May). Consequently, as the Italian marine scientist Amoroso di Natale puts it,

th
during the latter part of the 20 century bluefin ‘rapidly became an icon for many

environmental organisations and the media and big businesses’ (2010, p. 1005).

While all four bluefin species matter politically and economically in similar ways,

they are geographically dispersed and their cultural significance differs. Each species is

caught up in the lives and livelihoods of different fishing communities and ecosystems

around the globe. I focus on the Atlantic bluefin because of its long and well-documented

history among coastal communities in the Mediterranean, which offers an opportunity to

7