Japan's huge appetite for tuna will take the most sought-after stocks to the brink of commercial extinction unless more rigid quotas are agreed, wildlife campaigners warned yesterday.WWF said that although Japan was the main culprit, burgeoning demand for tuna from other countries, such as China, had increased the threat to stocks.
Fishmongers check the quality of meat on large tuna fish at this year's first trading at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. Australia, Japan and the United States have proposed a global system to assess tuna conservation amid criticism that not enough is being done to prevent overfishing.(AFP/Jiji Press/File)
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"Tuna are fast disappearing, with important stocks at high risk of commercial extinction due to weak management," the group, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. "Atlantic bluefin [tuna], used for high-end sushi and sashimi, is massively overfished and the spawning stock of southern bluefin in the Indian Ocean is down about 90%."
The warning came at the start of a five-day meeting in Kobe, Japan, of the world's five biggest tuna fisheries management organisations, which cover 77 countries and regions. "We are deeply concerned about the future of global tuna stock. We must strengthen our cooperation to tackle the issue," said Toshiro Shirasu, director general of the Fisheries Agency in Japan.
About 2m tonnes of tuna were caught worldwide in 2004 and 530,000 tonnes went to Japanese markets in 2005, according to the Fisheries Agency.
Japan, which consumes more than half of the world's catch of at-risk Atlantic bluefin tuna, admits overfishing, but blames poor communication between its fishermen and denies it has fished illegally. Last October it agreed to halve its catch of southern bluefin to 3,000 tonnes a year over the next five years.
A month later, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna agreed to cut this year's bluefin tuna quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean from 32,000 to 29,500 tonnes, raising fears in Japan of a steep price rise.
New quotas will not be decided this week, but campaigners hope members of the five regional bodies responsible for managing tuna stocks will agree to share data.
"For the first time, there's general agreement by the governments that something significant has to be done," Alistair Graham of WWF told Reuters.
Proposals include requiring fishermen to produce certificates of origin for their tuna catches and for fish to be monitored between capture and market.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
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