Pacific bluefin tuna group puts off new moves to save fish

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

TOKYO (AP) — An international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean ended a meeting in Japan on Thursday without agreement on fresh measures to protect the dwindling bluefin tuna.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission was unable to get a consensus on either short-term or long-term measures to help restore the bluefin population, whose numbers are estimated to have fallen 96 percent from unfished levels.

Last year, the 10-nation commission recommended that the catch of juvenile tuna be cut to half of its average level in 2002-2004. But conservation groups say more must be done to counter the sharp decline of the species.

The lack of a required three-quarters quorum prevented any agreement, since representatives from China, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu and the Philippines did not attend. So any decisions on new long-term measures were pushed back to 2016, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2015, file photo, prospective buyers inspect the quality of frozen tuna before the first auction of the year at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. An international body that monitors fisheries in most of the Pacific Ocean ended a meeting in Japan Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, without agreement on fresh measures to protect the dwindling bluefin tuna. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission was unable to get a consensus on either short term or long term measures to help restore the population of the bluefin, whose population has fallen 96 percent from unfished levels, according to a release by the group. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/df7b3d570afd4cc1bd3a7a7672a59c57/pacific-bluefin-tuna-group-puts-new-moves-save-fish

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[Dustlawyer]

1. The oceans are getting fished out quickly. Not a good sign that they cannot agree to save a

truly wonderful species.

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. Considering Japan consumes 80% of the bluefin tuna

It seems they could fix this problem with a moratorium of a few years. Do the Japanese just not care about the species going extinct? I'm not a sushi eater, but does bluefin taste that much different from other types of tuna that aren't endangered?

[Nihil]

3. Your answers are 1: No they don't. 2: No it doesn't but they just don't care.

It is the perceived cachet that makes the vain destroy yet another species for no good reason.
(c.f., the reef fish being driven extinct by overfishing, along with the whales, pangolins, tigers
and other creatures being driven extinct by hunting for the sake of sick rich fuckers.)