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TMCNet: Japan seeking to halve bluefin tuna catches in Atlantic+

[November 13, 2008]

Japan seeking to halve bluefin tuna catches in Atlantic+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Nov. 13_(Kyodo) _ Japan plans to call for halving bluefin tuna catch quota in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean at an annual meeting next week of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, government officials said Thursday.

The plan comes after the ICCAT scientific committee in October ruled that 28,500 tons of bluefin tuna catch quota in the waters for 2008 is excessive and recommended that the quota for 2009 be halved to less than 15,000 tons to prevent a fast decline in tuna stocks.

Concerned that overfishing could deplete tuna stocks and lead tuna to become subjected to an international trade ban, to the disadvantage of Japan that consumes massive amounts of tuna, the Fisheries Agency has concluded that the ICCAT should toughen fishing regulations soon, the officials said.

Any endangered species could become subjected to an international trade ban under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The United States is expected to support the Japanese position at the ICCAT meeting in Morocco from Monday. Any agreement at the meeting would depend on whether France and other Mediterranean countries would come closer to Japan and the United States, the officials said.

Mediterranean countries catch bluefin tuna to be fattened at farms before exporting them to Japan, the largest bluefin tuna consumer in the world. Farm-fattened bluefin tuna are cheaper than natural tuna and is massively sold in supermarkets and low-price sushi bars in Japan.

The 50 percent cut in the quota is expected to affect Japanese consumers. Japan's bluefin tuna catch quota in the ICCAT-regulated waters for 2008 total 2,430 tons and could be reduced to 1,300 tons in 2009 under the Japanese plan.

Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc.

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