politics

Int'l meeting ends without agreement on Japan saury quota proposal

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Experts say Japan faces difficulty in convincing these countries to accept the cap on catches.

Pot kettle black again! Japan complains when other countries attempt to put curbs on their fishing, but when Japan tries the same thing with their neighbors, they get their knickers in a bind.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

er, why wasn't NK included? the fish come down the two coasts of japan, half getting radionuclides from Fukushima, the other half massive overfished.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Yubaru - exactly. With Japan (under 2% of the world's population) consuming 80% of the world's bluefin tuna and its refusal to abide by quotas, it's got no moral right to tell other countries how much to catch.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/24/japan-criticised-exceed-bluefin-tuna-fishing-quota

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Higher temperatures in Japan's surrounding waters are thought to be one reason for smaller saury catches.

I will confirm this. Went out on the boat today and the water temp was 27.5 degrees in Miyagi.

That is tropical and no one had seen it that high before.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Look how Kyodo frames this:

Saury, a common ingredient in Japanese dishes

contrasted with

has become a popular target for fishermen amid growing demand in other parts of Asia.

The insinuation of course is that Japanese were there first, and deserve first dibs. That sanma is an essential part of Japanese culture, and must be protected. "Common ingredient in Japanese dishes" versus "demand in other parts of Asia".

Fish are fish. People are people.

Get over it.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I wonder if Japan would be willing to insert a "for research purposes" the limits can be overlooked? Maybe Chinese and Korea would agree to it then. And let the "research" begin!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Someone should explain to the fish that the concept of higher sea temperatures is just a Chinese creation, designed to weaken American manufacturers.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

WOW, Japan thinking about conserving marine resources.............what is the world coming too!!

Japan has been sucking MARINE RESOURCES world wide bigtime for 4+decades! And ditto for sanma for decades, now that vessels from elsewhere have shown up & low & behold the sudden concern for fish stocks!

Meanwhile ports Japan wide routinely ignore, turn a blind eye to illegal catches being brought ashore, which has been going on for many decades, even when FOREIGN  vessels come to port! Russians have been doing this forever in northern Japan

Japan is now crying because more vessels are skipping Japan ports for other countries!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It stops being funny when it starts being you, eh Japan?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The agreement is regarding the sustainable protection of food resources.

Japan depends on marine resources while the other nations have far greater land based resources with which to feed themselves.

Largely, it's also just about who profits by selling the fish to Japan, because much of what is caught by other nations is sold back to Japan.

They want to sell the fish to Japan because they can make more doing so, they don't need them to eat.

It is true that due to its economic success, and the nature of "The Market" (global capitalism that allows anyone to kill anything if there's a dollar in it) Japan has come to consume far more marine produce that it actually needs to, the tuna being a pefect example.

It was not like this even back in the 1970s but we are clearly racing towards very serious environmental crises born out of greed, idiocy and selfishness.

China is late to the party and wants to cash in as much as possible. Russia has not had the greatest of records at sticking to international agreements.

In this case, I would trust Japan far above both of them to make and stick to international agreement.

Taiwan was recently sanctioned by the EU for illegal fishing.

It exports more than half of its US$3.38 billion fisheries production, with more than 90% of tuna going to the US and Japan.

So it's not about fish nor even national rights, it's about profit and greed. Taiwan has the biggest tuna fleet in the Pacific, its fishery is out of control.

All of the major Asian nations have far too many boats and too little control.

In one sense, the root of going right back not even to US or Japanese consumers, but the banks giving too many easy loans, to too many companies and individuals, to buy too many boats, that now need paid off.

It's another out of control banking racket heading to hit the fan.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

The decline in Japan's catch "could be due to various environmental factors. We can't say that overfishing is the only cause," said Hideaki Kidokoro of the Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute.

Higher temperatures in Japan's surrounding waters are thought to be one reason for smaller saury catches.

So, when all else fails, just blame it on global warming. There is no evidence to connect warmer sea temps with saory stocks. However, there is plenty of evidence to support overfishing. You only have to go into your local supermarket to see that. Saory used to be a secondary catch, but due to the decline in populations of other more palatable fish (bonito, mackerel, etc) due to overfishing, it became a main target fish. I'm afraid that all these countries are arguing over scraps.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

For a small country, Japan is doing a lot to decimate tuna populations in the Mediterranean.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Mediterranean Tuna is NOT fished by Japan but overfished by Mediterranean Countries.

Europe, USA, etc have increased their Tuna consumption a lot with the increasing Sushi Restaurants worldwide.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

In all fairness, Mediterranean tuna fisheries are driven by the Japanese demand, and demand for so called Japanese sushi overseas.

Mitsubishi owns about 40% of the world market in bluefin tuna, one of the world's most endangered fish, and is engaging in a "futures market" of it, freezing, storing and selling as and when the prices fluctuate.

If the Chinese market continues to grow at its current rate, it will lead to extinction.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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