Australia wants to catch 30 per cent more of an endangered tuna, but eco-friendly New Zealand believes the stock needs more time to recover from overfishing, documents show.
The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna is meeting in Sydney today to set a quota for the bluefin tuna fishery.
Australia and New Zealand are members of the conservation body, along with Japan and South Korea.
But Australia and New Zealand were already at odds over tuna catch limits before the meeting began.
New Zealand government and industry officials have discussed Australia’s plan to have bluefin tuna fishing levels returned to pre-2009 levels.
“Key pressure points for an increase in global total allowance catch were … noted, including a strong signal that Australia wishes to return to its former [pre-2009] allocation,” minutes from a meeting on August 9 say.
In 2009, the commission agreed to have Australia’s catch limits for bluefin tuna cut by 23 per cent to an annual quota of 4015 tonnes.
But Australia now wants its catch limits raised to the pre-2009 level (5242 tonnes), which would be a 30 per cent increase on present catch limits, the minutes say.
New Zealand wants bluefin tuna quotas to be kept on hold for three to four years.
It accepts the scientific view that bluefin tuna stocks are still at just 5 per cent of what they would be if there had been no fishing.
Greenpeace wants fishing of southern bluefin tuna to be stopped completely rather than reduced.
“The biggest threat to survival has been overfishing … the stocks are severely depleted,” ocean campaigner Nathaniel Pelle told AAP.
But the Australian Tuna Association wants bluefin tuna catch limits returned to pre-2009 levels.
“All we’re asking for is the quota that we lost in 2009 when the quota was cut,” chief executive Brian Jeffriess told ABC radio today.
Comment was being sought from the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
