Japan Punished for Overfishing Tuna
The AFP reports that “Japan has accepted a major slash in its international quota for prized southern bluefin tuna as punishment for overfishing.” The conclusion that Japan was overfishing was reached by the international Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, which ruled that Japan’s annual quota would be reduced from 6,065 tons to 3,000 tons for five years beginning in 2007. This decision came after Japan exceeded its quota by approximately 1,800 tons.
Japanese officials state that the overfishing was not intentional and was actually the result of improper administrative procedures, causing the government to lose count of how much tuna had been fished.
The same commission, which is made up of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan also decided to reduce the total amount of the catch of southern bluefin tuna “by nearly 20 percent to 11,530 tons for 2007.” Environmentalists believe that “the growing appetite for high-end Japanese sushi was pushing the fish to the brink of extinction.”
