Nairobi — For all its speed and skill, tuna is no match for today's commercial fishing industry. Every 10th tuna caught is illegally fished out and not included in official statistics, writes RUPI MANGAT IF THE TUNA IS YOUR FAVOURITE fish dish, it may pay to be a little concerned about its future. Its tangy, sea-zesty flavour has made it a much sought after fish. However, with little monitoring until recently, most tuna species today are classified as threatened worldwide.

A tuna caught by a local fisherman in Vanga off Kenya's south coast early in 2006, caused quite a stir. The fish had a Koranic verse on its side and Muslims around the country flocked to catch a glimpse of the inscription. Stored in the government fisheries, the 2.5 kilogramme fish then disappeared and resurfaced in America where it was auctioned off for $150. It's usual market rate in Mombasa is $5.

"Tuna is a highly valued fish, especially in the Asian market, with Japan being the leading buyer" says Shikani Kennedy, the senior fisheries officer at the Kenyan Fisheries Coast regional office.

"Tuna stocks in the oceans have been depleted the world over save for the Indian Ocean, which makes it the current target for the tuna industry," added the officer who was trained in 2005 as a tagging technician to represent Kenya in the tuna tagging programme under the Indian Ocean Tagging Commission (IOTC). The IOTC headquarters are based in the Seychelles.

"Tuna tagging is a process to help IOTC assess the tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean. All the western Indian Ocean countries are members of IOTC except for Somalia."

"We don't know the numbers of the tuna in our waters. To make any informed decisions about the industry, we have to know what is in the water," said Shikani. "Tagging is one of the best ways of monitoring and assessing stocks."

"Tagging involves using a hook and a line, catching the fish and landing it on a soft table called a cradle where it is tagged with a plastic tag on the dorsal fin and then released. Some species are fitted with microchips depending on their status. The process, from tag to release, takes 12 seconds," says the officer, proudly wearing his IOTC T-shirt printed with the different species of tuna.

The tuna is an impressive fish. It is built for speed, for its survival depends on bursts of high speed to obtain oxygen from the water that enters through its open mouth. It can easily suffocate if not in motion simply because there's no oxygen to absorb from water flowing over its gills. That is one reason that the tuna taggers have to work fast.

The tuna is the only warmblooded fish. Its flesh, unlike other fish, is pink to blood red because it contains great quantities of myoglobin, an oxygen binding molecule. It spends its life near the surface of the oceans and seas, travelling vast distances through the open oceans in search of food. Tuna have been recorded at speeds of 77 kilometres per hour, matching the cheetah's sprint on dry land. Moving in schools, they make efficient predators at sea, herding the prey into a quarry and going into a feeding frenzy.

MOVING IN VAST schools is also a survival technique to confuse bigger predators like sharks. Dolphins are usually associated with the tuna, one of the sea's most lovable creatures taking protection among the tuna numbers.

But for all its speed and skill, the tuna is no match for today's commercial fishing industry. Fished to their limit and beyond, the Worldwide Fund for Nature Conservation (WWF) newsletter of May 15 this year calls for a shake up of the Indian Ocean tuna and swordfish fisheries industry. It claims that every 10th tuna caught is illegally fished and not included in official statistics. Further, the entire Indian Ocean ecosystem is under threat from the big trawlers as countless sharks, turtles, seabirds and other unfortunate animals including dolphins are caught as by-catch in the huge purse seine nets or on kilometre-long lines with thousands of hooks targeting tuna and swordfish.

Tuna have been fished for a thousand years using traditional sustainable methods. The first canned tuna appeared in the US in 1902. In 1952, the first industrialised long line fishing boats entered deep waters after the tuna, followed in the 1980s by the purse seiners.

Over the past 25 years, catches have increased tenfold and now exceed 700,000 tonnes per year. In monetary terms, it is a $2 billion industry, making the Indian Ocean one of the most valuable tuna fisheries in the world.

Japan has been accused of overfishing to meet its insatiable appetite for tuna. In Kenya, it has a very select market due to its high price.

"Tuna are highly migratory. The three popular Kenyan species are Skipjack, Yellowfin and Bigeye," says Shikani. "They come to Kenyan and Tanzanian waters from May to August. Because they are target fish and highly migratory, there is a need for a joint regional management body to assess the tuna stocks."

KENYA STARTED TAGGING the tuna, which is locally known as Kiboma, in 2005. There are three types of tags - the plastic dart tag, the electronic tag and the archival tag. The latter two are high-tech chips where the chip is extracted from the fish and downloaded on the computer. The fish, when tagged electronically, can also be traced via satellite.

"The fishing boats are monitored," says Shikani.

"Under international regulations, they are required to carry a log book to record the fish catch. In Kenyan waters only registered and licensed trawlers are allowed to fish."