The End of the Line
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:37 am – Posted by Mandy | 4 Comments
Blogger: Forest & Bird Marine Advocate, Kirstie Knowles
Our critically endangered Southern Bluefin Tuna swims around the seas of several countries from Australia to Japan – and while these countries are working to reduce their quotas – we are trying to bump ours up by 25%.
Southern Bluefin Tuna, Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Fisheries.
The back-story goes something like this. Five (Japan, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea & NZ) countries work together to set up a Commission for Conservation (estab 1994) for Bluefin Tuna that sets fishing quotas for each country.
However, one of the founding signatories, Japan ( 1994) and recent signees Indonesia (2008), Taiwan (2002) & Korea (2001) have flouted their quota agreements and now New Zealand wants to get even, by putting in a proposal to up its tonnage from 420 – 532 tonnes.