In 2013, Japan, South Korea, China, the United States and other countries with an appetite for bigeye tuna agreed to gradually catch less ahi in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean after studies showed they were on track to decimate the species if they did not adjust course.
That’s not what the U.S. has done though. A federal rule lets the nation’s longliners, almost all of which are based in Hawaii, extend their quota through agreements with certain Pacific island territories.
And now federal fishery managers, longliners and others are mulling ways to haul in even more tuna — potentially twice as much or more — by changing the rules.
