Countries participating in an international conference on managing bluefin tuna resources in the Northern Pacific agreed Thursday to halve catches of juvenile bluefin tuna starting next year.
A four-day subcommittee meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) wrapped up in Fukuoka with a broad agreement on Japan’s proposal to cut catches of juvenile bluefin tuna weighing less than 30 kilograms, from the 2002-2004 average.
Japanese eat 80 per cent of the world’s bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay, and demand elsewhere in the world has kept growing.
Cutting the catch in half would reduce Japan’s annual catch of juvenile bluefins to about 4,000 tons from next year, out of a fisheries-wide catch of 4,725 tons.
The stricter conservation rule is aimed at recovering maritime resources before their depletion, since resource reserves of adult Pacific bluefin tuna fell to the lowest ever level of about 26,000 tons in 2012.
Participants also agreed to make efforts not to increase catches of bluefin tuna weighing 30 kg or more from the 2002-2004 average level.
The outcome of the conference will be conveyed to an annual WCPFC meeting in December.
