COLUMN ONE : The Giant Is Reeling on the Ropes : Mighty Atlantic bluefin, a sushi bar delicacy, is air-freighted from Gulf to Japan. The fishermen’s bonanza is depleting the tuna supply. International squabbles only exacerbate the problem.

Soon after Buster Rich eased his 75-foot-long “Mr. Crockett” to the dock, the bidding for the giant bluefin tuna began.

The fish, weighing more than 600 pounds, was a good one. Not great. Just a B-minus to a B in a grading system that takes into account color, freshness, fat content and shape. George Pharis, one of the dockside buyers, liked it well enough to pay $6,500 for it.

“It’s a good, solid domestic fish,” Pharis said.

The tuna, caught last month at the close of the Gulf of Mexico’s fishing season, was immediately wrapped in rice paper and air-freighted to Los Angeles. Within 48 hours it was being served in Japanese restaurants around the city, for bluefin is one of the great delicacies of the sushi bar.

But even at more than $10 a pound, the price for Rich’s fish pales in comparison to what a top-quality bluefin will fetch in Japan after it has been rushed there from the Gulf, encased in an ice-filled, coffin-like box. A 715-pound tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market sold last year for a record $67,500--$94.40 a pound.

And therein lies a dilemma. Because of this ability to fill the demand in Japan, the Atlantic bluefin has gone from being a prime ingredient in cat food to one of the most valuable inhabitants of the sea.

A veritable tuna gold rush--more than two decades of heavy fishing--has left this once-plentiful sport fish, known for its power and spirit, in trouble, the victim of international skirmishes, technology and economic reality.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, a multinational organization based in Madrid, estimates that giant bluefin--those weighing more than 310 pounds--in the Western Atlantic have undergone a staggering decline from an estimated 225,000 in 1970 to 22,000 in 1990.

Environmentalists are in an uproar because they say the stock of fish is being depleted and may never recover.

Sport fishermen blame commercial fishermen for what is happening to the bluefin.

Commercial fishermen retort that the fish has become so valuable that sport fishermen are that in name only. “They’re commercial fishermen,” said David McGinnis, a Dulac buyer and wholesaler. “They sell what fish they catch.”

Meanwhile, the National Marine Fisheries Service struggles to decide what rules should be imposed on bluefin fishing, while being sued and sniped at from all sides. Commercial fishermen say current rules actually increase the number of bluefin being killed. Environmentalists say the Gulf spawning grounds should be closed to fishing altogether and that much stricter catch quotas should be imposed.

Add to this an international controversy about the fish. It includes disputes among countries, including the United States, about how many bluefin each should be allowed to catch. And ICCAT members charge that other countries, notably Mexico, are making a mockery of multinational agreements designed to protect the bluefin.

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At the center of it all is one of the great creatures of the sea, one Aristotle wrote about in his “History of Animals” and one that Hemingway loved to pursue. Growing to more than 1,500 pounds, the bluefin has long been considered one of the world’s best sport fish, ranking with marlin and swordfish for its strength and fighting ability.

The bluefin is noted for both speed and endurance, capable of bursts of up to 50 miles per hour and able to dive thousands of feet in seconds. When it zips through the water, its fins retract like the wings of an F-14 fighter jet.

“It is really one magnificent fish,” Rich said.

Until the 1960s, the Atlantic bluefin was viewed primarily as a sport fish along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its oily flesh, most Americans did not care to eat it. In the days before the bluefin craze, the fish often sold for as little as 7 cents a pound.

But then a series of events occurred that, in very short order, changed the makeup of the fishery. Purse seiners, with their huge nets, began targeting schools of Atlantic bluefin in the early 1960s. While the fish sold for very little per pound, large quantities went to pet food manufacturers, thus making the bluefin a profitable catch. California boats moved into Atlantic waters and filled their holds. In one year, a single purse seiner could land more bluefin than could be caught by all other types of fishing combined.

Meanwhile, Japanese long-liners, seeking to profit from the large bluefin population, expanded their range to the Atlantic, using baited hooks on lines that typically stretched for 40 miles. Many of the Japanese boats focused on the Gulf, which biologists say is the only known spawning ground for the Atlantic bluefin.

By the early ‘70s, it was clear to all that the Atlantic bluefin population was in trouble. And though there was an international agreement not to catch bluefin under 15 pounds, it did nothing to stop the landing of thousands of giants each year. Finally, in 1981, ICCAT, the multinational commission, was advised by its own scientific group that catches of both the giants and juveniles must be reduced as completely as possible for the next two years.

ICCAT, instead, ordered that directed fishing--going after a specific kind of fish--in the Gulf be eliminated and set a quota of 1,160 tons to be shared by the major fishing nations of the North Atlantic--the United States, Canada and Japan. The following year the quota for giants was doubled.

“They were called scientific monitoring quotas,” said Steve Berkeley, formerly a biologist with the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. “They were anything but that.”

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Something else started happening about this time: Several wholesalers on the East Coast experimented with air-freighting bluefins to Japan without freezing them, thereby markedly increasing their value. In fairly short order, prices went through the roof. Commercial and recreational fishermen alike began to focus on the bluefin. Small wonder, when one fish on a day’s outing might pay for the new kitchen and a vacation to Europe. Japanese buyers, and later their American agents, became a fixture on docks from Louisiana to Maine.

“It’s hard to tell someone to throw a fish back when it’s worth so much money,” Berkeley said.

Carl Safina, a biologist with the National Audubon Society, was once an avid bluefin angler. He recalls a day in 1987 when he and a friend returned to Long Island after having caught a good-sized fish. Air-freighting of bluefin to Japan was in full swing and Safina wanted part of the action. But what he witnessed on the dock staggered him.

“Sport fishermen were dragging juvenile bluefins in from every direction,” he said. “We were feeling that the whole tuna gold rush thing had gotten out of control. That tuna was the last one I will ever sell.”

Instead, Safina turned his attention to marine conservation. With him as a major player, the fate of the bluefin has become a high priority for a number of environmental groups. For two years they have been pressing the international community to protect the Atlantic giants.

They have met with only limited success, and the international infighting that has gone on during that time gives an example of what can happen when a fish becomes so valuable.

In 1991, the 21-member ICCAT again ignored advice from its scientific committee--this time, that the stock of bluefin would begin to recover if the quota for the fish were cut in half. Instead, the quotas were cut by only 10%, a decision which Safina chalks up to the fact that ICCAT representatives are largely industry-oriented.

Environmentalists counterattacked by enlisting the aid of Sweden to sponsor a proposal that would have put the bluefin on a list of endangered species. That would have banned its export and effectively shut down the market. The legal mechanism for such a ban was the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which met last year in Japan for its biannual session.

Sweden, however, withdrew its proposal after ICCAT member-nations pledged to implement more care and scrutiny in the protection of the bluefin. But Safina said more than closed-door bargaining went on at the meeting. Safina said Japan, the biggest importer, and Canada, one of the largest exporters, worked hardest to defeat the proposal.

“We even heard from other delegates that if they voted for it (the Swedish proposal), there could be some serious economic consequences for their countries,” he said.

Richard Stone, who directs the division for highly migratory species at the National Marine Fisheries Service, said he thinks ICCAT will be forced to take some stronger measures when it meets this year in Madrid. But he also warned that no overnight cures exist for the plight of the bluefin, largely because there are so many competing interests.

“It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to happen quickly,” Stone said.

Meanwhile, the federal fisheries services faces demands from all sides. One NMFS official said he often feels that the service is being bounced around like a pinball.

The NMFS, for instance, just finished a court battle with environmentalists trying to force the federal agency to prepare an environmental impact statement on the bluefin population immediately, on the grounds that the fish population was being significantly depleted. The NMFS won that round when a federal judge ruled that the agency’s stated intention to prepare an impact report in 1994 was sufficient.

At the same time, commercial fishermen in the Gulf have been complaining about recent federal regulations requiring them to have 2,500 pounds of other fish on board before they can return to the docks with a bluefin. They say the rules have led to catching a bluefin, but throwing it overboard if one is found on the lines later in the trip because the fresher fish will be worth more at market.

McGinnis, the Dulac fish buyer, said there was circumstantial evidence that the rule had caused fewer fish to be brought in that were of high enough quality to be sent to Japan. He said he exported only 22 bluefin to Japan this year, but last year the number was about 130.

“If they would have a five- or seven-day waiting period before they could catch their next bluefin, it would solve the problem,” he said.

He and others also complain that many fishermen, angered by the increasing federal regulation, are simply taking their boats to other countries and reflagging them. He said most are sailing out of Mexico, which is not an ICCAT member. Because of that, they can fish with impunity, then send their catch to Japan.

Others closer to the Texas border have transported their bluefin to American cities to be put on planes.

Over the next several months, one international rule is expected to be enacted to more closely monitor bluefin catches. It will require a more stringent accounting of the bluefin exported to Japan from the ICCAT countries, thereby making it easier to detect the quantity of fish coming from other parts of the world.

But almost all agree there will be no solution until there is an international agreement to save the fish.

“There is pressure on the fish. There is no question about it,” said Ray Dackerman, a wholesaler based in New Orleans. “Somehow it’s going to have to be a bigger picture solution. Now it’s like putting your finger in a gap and having a bigger hole open up somewhere else.”

SH Net Damage

By the early ‘70s, it was clear that overfishing was endangering the Atlantic bluefin population. Here is the decline in numbers:

1972: 224,700

1973: 213,168

1974: 220,601

1975: 187,305

1976: 168,270

1977: 136,324

1978: 110,266

1979: 92,567

1980: 90,006

1981: 79,750

1982: 63,811

1983: 63,256

1984: 53,591

1985: 43,632

1986: 39,584

1987: 38,572

1988: 35,359

1989: 31,982

1990: 29,040

1991: 22,066

Source: International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas

BLUEFIN: A SPEEDY GIANT

The bluefin is the largest type of tuna. Unlike most fish, the tuna cannot pump water over its gills and must swim continuously to breathe. The bluefin is among the fastest fish in the ocean.

Surface Swimmer: It is found in upper waters, the area of brightest sunlight, to a depth of 600 feet

Maximum length: 10 feet

Maximum weight: 1,500 pounds

Speed: Up to 50 m.p.h

WHERE IT ROAMS

The bluefin is found from Newfoundland to Brazil. The Gulf of Mexico bluefin’s only known breeding ground.