Pacific nations agree to cut bluefin tuna catches

Haiku for bluefin:

Fifteen percent? That's

determined conservation!

...who stole all our fish?

concerned about the impact on local fishing industries, agreed on the 15% cut

What happens to the local industries when ZERO maguro are left?! Tuna are top of the food chain predators, you wipe them out and the entire ocean ecosytem goes off balance. Net result .... Oceans filled with jellyfish.

Greed

Farmed Bluefin is the wave of the future. Japan started 11 years ago. I believe Australia has as well in je past few years. Until now like eels, Bluefin young had to be caught in the wild then raised in pens. The restriction described in the article for young Bluefin means that there will now be a grater reliance on egg to fish farming as the young Bluefin will no longer be as readily available. In the long run this will eliminate pressure on wild stocks.

Eat as much as you can now, then you can tell your grand kids how tasty it was. Children love stories about what it was like, back in the day!

Farmed Bluefin is the wave of the future. ...... In the long run this will eliminate pressure on wild stocks.

It isn't that simple. Getting the fish to spawn in captivity is now apparently possible, but the growing fish need to eat huge amounts of smaller fish taken from the wild - fish that are then no longer available to other wild predators, including wild bluefin. Large-scale aquaculture involves massive disruption of the natural environment; in addition to the removal of huge amounts of fish to feed the captive fish with, the concentration of large numbers of large fish in a restricted area means massive pollution from excreta and the antibiotics used to control disease in the crowded conditions.

Tuna naturally travel long distances, which means that their wastes are spread thinly and benefit the environment rather than pollute it; that doesn't happen when they're farmed.

Anyone concerned about animal welfare would also worry about the unspeakable cruelty involved in caging from birth a creature that has a strong natural wanderlust, but I don't suppose that bothers most sushi eaters any more than the factory farming of furry or feathered food bothers the meat-eaters.

Words are easy but there will still be lots of illegal fishing going on (poaching the right word?). Where there is demand someone will step up to supply.

Yes cleo I know you wont be satisfied till all humankind stops eating anything that moves. Unfortunately it isn't that simple. Human populations are growing and natural resources are diminishing. Comes a time when one has to choose between one's own idealistic beliefs and the survival of the human race.The difference between you and me is that I put a priority on HUMAN welfare.

I wonder why AFP left this peice out of their report.

Among the nine participants in the subcommittee, South Korea alone withheld support for the agreement, seeking to be exempted from the cut, it said.

The other participants urged South Korea to endorse the proposal before the annual WCPFC conference in December in Australia, where the cut may be finalized.

If South Korea fails to agree, the subcommittee will consider the matter again, the agency said.

So, once again we see Japan changing the rules to suit themselves in the fishing industry. It won't really make much difference though. The bluefin tuna populations have already crashed and will probably never recover. Enjoy it while you can you greedy pigs cos they'll all be gone within ten years if you keep fishing them.

cleo

growing fish need to eat huge amounts of smaller fish taken from the wild

Sorry but many industrial farm grown crops like corn and soy uses fish meal as fertilizers as well so there isn't that much of a difference.

I love my meat and fish, but have to agree with Cleo that we eat too much of it and have already destroyed huge tracts of the planet and made several species (almost) extinct on the backs of our appetites. Vegetable protein/nutrition is far more efficient in keeping us alive than animal, so we should eat more veggies and less Ponyo/Bambi/Babe/whoever.

guess what i am eating tonight

Ossan: "In the long run this will eliminate pressure on wild stocks."

It won't eliminate pressure on the stocks at all unless there is a TOTAL ban and they rely only on the farmed fish you mention, because if not, that's all they'll have left. It'll mean a mint for whomever is farming and selling them, but the numbers will not catch up with what they have already taken and are still taking.

the impact on local fishing industries...

And herin lies the problem. Japan (especially Japan!) does still think of itself as a industrial nation and it favors and protects the "industry" over everything. It is unwilling or incapable of understanding that things can not gonon as before in eternity. A good example of this is Abe-kun and his policies. It's the same old ideas, recycled.

Japanese eat an uproportinate amount of the world's tuna supply. Because the "markets" demand it. This has to change or they will soon be left with no tuna left at all.

smithinjapanSep. 06, 2013 - 08:00PM JST Ossan: "In the long run this will eliminate pressure on wild stocks." It won't eliminate pressure on the stocks at all unless there is a TOTAL ban and they rely only on the farmed fish you >mention, because if not, that's all they'll have left. It'll mean a mint for whomever is farming and selling them, but the >numbers will not catch up with what they have already taken and are still taking.

Yes it will. The new rules have reduced the number of Bluefin under 3 years that can be taken. Young Bluefin must be about 1 year old in order to use them in farms to raise. Because of this new rule there will be less young fish available. This forces an increase in the full egg to fish farming, a method that has been bringing fish to market for a few years now. An increase in fully farmed fish brought to market will result in a decease in wild fish harvested. It's not that hard to comprehend.

@OssanAmerica

full egg to fish farming, a method that has been bringing fish to market for a few years now

How is the flavor? Quite a different lifestyle from their cousins swimming a 1000 kilometers in a few days.

CraigHicks

First of all most of the Bluefin tunas that are sold in the market are farmed tunas already so they haven't swam further then the fence of the pen most of their life either.

Second you can try Kinki Dai tuna here.

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/kad5613/