Japan ready to impose tuna quotas as pressure grows to stave off extinction

AP

May 31, 2007

Japan is considering imposing restrictions on bluefin fishing in its own waters, in an attempt to arrest the decline in numbers of the much-prized delicacy.
Its Fisheries Agency plans to form a committee next month that will make recommendations on restrictions. Japan currently has no limits on bluefin tuna fishing in its waters.
The move follows an agreement between the European Union and Japan this month to slash tuna quotas by more than 20 per cent in an effort to prevent the fish from being hunted to extinction. Environmentalists claim that 80 per cent of the bluefin tuna population has disappeared in the past 20 years.
In January, regulators meeting in Japan adopted a plan to rein-in illegal fishing, restrict the growth of fleets and share data on stock levels. The Japanese committee is expected to discuss imposing size restrictions to allow younger fish to mature.
Japan consumes about 12 per cent of the 2.06 million tonnes of tuna caught globally every year, and about a quarter of the world’s supply of the five big tuna species: bluefin, southern bluefin, bigeye, yellowfin and albacore.