Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna

On 20 May 1994 the then existing voluntary management arrangement between Australia, Japan and New Zealand was formalised when the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna came into force. The Convention created the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT). The CCSBT is headquartered in Canberra, Australia.

The objective of the Commission is to ensure the conservation and optimum utilisation of the Southern Bluefin Tuna stock.

SBT, Thunnus maccoyii, is a valuable, highly migratory species of pelagic fish. SBT ranges widely across the high seas regions of the southern hemisphere but also traverses the exclusive economic zones and territorial seas of countries including Australia and New Zealand.

SBT has a single spawning ground in the waters south of Indonesia (northwest of Australia) between approximately 7 deg and 20 deg S. It is a long-lived species, living up to 40 years or more. It has a lengthy pre-maturity period and virtually life-long exposure to fishing pressure; the stock is slow to recover from depletion relative to other shorter-lived species, including most other species of tuna.

Australian fishers have targeted SBT commercially since the 1950s. The species was initially intended for tuna canneries, but the development of the fresh tuna market in Japan over the past decade, has seen a major shift in the fishing and marketing of SBT. 

Most of Australia’s SBT quota is now caught and placed in pens off Port Lincoln, where it is fattened before being sent to Japan. The SBT industry earns an estimated $180 million annually.

In the decades up to the end of the 1980s, high levels of fishing for SBT caused serious depletion of the adult SBT stock. Scientific studies suggest that the spawning biomass levels may now be between 3% and 8% of its unfished level. 

In 2009, the CCSBT set the following Member annual national allocations:

Efforts are continuing to bring catches of non-members under the management of the CCSNT. In 2009 small catch allocations were agreed for the cooperating non-members South Africa, the Philippines and the European Community. South Africa and the European Community have expressed interest in becoming full members of CCSBT in the future.

Australia’s long-term goal within the CCSBT is to develop policies to help rebuild the SBT spawning stock biomass to above 20% of its unfished level.

CCSBT is currently developing a management procedure to help effectively manage the global SBT stock, which is actively supported by Australia.

CCSBT holds an annual meeting hosted by each member in turn, as well as several working group and committee meetings each year.

For more information on the CCSBT see CCSBT Meeting Schedule and CCSBT Meeting Reports.

Contact
CCSBT Secretariat
PO Box 37
Deakin West
ACT 2600 Australia
email: sec@ccsbt.org
website: www.ccsbt.org