Japan to Cut Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Catch By 23%

Japan today agreed to cut its catch of Atlantic bluefin tuna by almost a quarter over the next four years in the latest attempt to save the fish from commercial extinction.

Environmental groups say that Japan's huge appetite for the raw delicacy is largely to blame for taking numbers to dangerous levels, and warn that growing demand from other countries will increase the threat to tuna stocks around the world.

Under the agreement, Japan will cut its quota by 23% from 2006 levels to about 2,175 tonnes in 2010.

The overall tuna take in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean will fall by about 20% from 32,000 tonnes to 25,500 tonnes under an agreement reached last autumn by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

Conservation groups said the measures didn't go far enough, but officials in Japan, which consumes more than half the global bluefin catch, said they would help maintain stocks while avoiding dramatic price rises.

"We believe that this was unavoidable, and that we were not treated unfairly," Masanori Miyahara, a fisheries agency official, told reporters.
"Since bluefin tuna is only one part of Japan's total tuna consumption, the overall impact on consumers is likely to be minimal. But there will definitely be an impact on the higher end of the market."

Because bluefin tuna is served mainly as sushi and sashimi in high-class restaurants, so far only well-off diners have been affected by price rises.

Fisheries management groups have resisted calls for reductions in quotas for the less-expensive big eye and yellowfin tuna found in cheaper restaurants and supermarkets.

In October Japan agreed to slash its quota of southern bluefin tuna, which are found throughout the southern hemisphere, by almost half to 3,000 tonnes a year for five years from 2007.