Also see below:     
Factbox - Key Facts About Japan and the Global Tuna Industry    [

    Japan Meeting Seeks to Save Tuna From Extinction
    By Elaine Lies
    Reuters

    Tuesday 23 January 2007

    Tokyo - Illegal fishing has depleted global stocks of tuna and governments need to take bold action to save some critically endangered species, the WWF conservation group said on Monday as a conference on the topic opened in Japan.

    Japan's insatiable appetite for tuna has been a key factor behind the threat to stocks, and now increasing demand from other countries is adding to the pressure.

    Populations of important commercial species such as bluefin tuna, of which Japan consumes more than half, are already critically depleted, the WWF said in a statement.

    "Atlantic bluefin, 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 percent," it added.

    The world's five major tuna management groups - regional clusters of governments known as Regional Fisheries Management Organisations - are meeting this week in Kobe, western Japan, to discuss problems facing the industry. Some 300 officials from 77 countries and regions are slated to take part.

    "The tuna stocks have been overfished across the oceans, and we have to handle this problem with a global point of view," Japanese Fisheries Agency Director General Toshiro Shirasu said at the opening of the meeting.

    WWF officials called the gathering an important first step but said regulators needed to set quotas based on scientific data and combat illegal fishing.

    "For the first time, there's a general agreement by the governments that something significant has to be done," said Alistair Graham, High Seas Advisor for WWF International.

    "One of the key decisions they have to make is to stop ignoring scientific data and to put in place catch limits."

    With fishing a touchy political topic in many nations, governments have tended to shy away from imposing restrictions on the industry.

    Illegal Overfishing

    The Kobe meeting is not expected to set catch limits, since those are decided at regional gatherings, but Graham said one outcome could be a decision by governments to use data on stocks and depletion for their fisheries policy.

    The meeting may also call for greater coordination among the regional management organisations and including tighter documentation of catches to prevent overfishing.

    "Many governments are routinely ignoring scientific advice, failing to implement the available conservation and management measures, turning a blind eye to illegal fishing, and not prosecuting those who flout rules," said Simon Cripps, director of WWF's global marine programme.

    Japan was rocked in November by news that global quotas for Atlantic bluefin tuna will be cut by nearly 8 percent next year.

    Japan's quota for southern bluefin was halved the month before for the next five years as punishment for years of overfishing.

    Experts say substantial catch reductions are needed for big-eyed and yellowfin tuna, both relatively inexpensive species that regularly appear on Japanese supermarket shelves, and whose price would rise considerably were catch limits imposed.

    Go to Original

    Factbox - Key Facts About Japan and the Global Tuna Industry
    Reuters

    Tuesday 23 January 2007

    The five regional bodies responsible for managing tuna stocks are to meet in Tokyo from Monday to Friday to discuss how to stop the illegal fishing blamed for their dramatic decline in numbers.

    Here are some key facts about tuna:

• Tuna are members of the Scombridae, or mackerel, family. Their common ancestors lived in warm tropical waters in the Miocene and Pliocene eras, more than 10 million years ago.
  
  
• Among the world's greatest travellers, the fastest-moving tuna, the bluefin, has been clocked at 70 miles (112 km) per hour and can accelerate to over 100 km per hour when chasing prey. They log thousands of miles in annual migrations between spawning and feeding grounds.
  
  
• Ocean-dwelling tuna live around the world, but usually spawn in tropical regions. Their circulatory systems regulate their body temperatures, so they can endure cold waters. Smaller types tend to stay in warmer waters, as the efficiency of body temperature regulation is proportionate to size.
  
  
• Small tropical skipjack, the world's most abundant tuna, usually weigh less than 5 kg (11 lb) and have a lifespan of less than five years. Like the bigger tropical-temperate yellowfin, albacore and bigeye tunas, their females spawn several million eggs, several times each year.
  
  
• Large, temperate, bluefin tuna often reach 500 kg, and adults are typically two metres long. They spawn after 10 years and can live up to 30 years.
  
  
• Overfishing is thought to have a worse impact on bluefin reproductive rates, because they take a decade to become sexually mature, and only spawn for a limited period in warm areas before migrating to cold feeding grounds.
  
  
• Approximately 2 million tonnes of tuna were caught worldwide in 2004, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says. Some 530,000 tonnes were supplied to Japanese markets in 2005, according to Japan's Fisheries Agency.
  
  
• In Oct. 2006 Japan agreed to nearly halve its southern bluefin catch to 3,000 tonnes a year for five years from 2007, after admitting to years of overfishing.
  
  
• Japan consumes more than half the world's most popular and expensive commercial tuna, the Atlantic bluefin. It is used in high-end sushi, and maguro and toro sashimi - thin slices of raw tuna and fatty tuna flesh.
  
  
• In Jan. 2001 Tokyo's famous Tsukiji Central Fish Market set a new record, selling a 201 kg bluefin for 20 million yen (US$165,000) or over US$800 per kg.
  
  
• The blue fin is also one of the most critically endangered commercial tuna species. Its spawning stock is down about 90 percent in the Indian Ocean because of overfishing, the WWF conservation group says.