PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant VBA_SCRIPT - assumed 'VBA_SCRIPT' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in ..../includes/functions_navigation.php(802) : eval()'d code on line 1 Japan admits to overfishing tuna
Japan fesses up to tuna overcatch: govt
Monday Oct 16 09:40 AEST
The Australian government is confident that Japan will honour its drastically reduced quota of bluefin tuna catch after acknowledging that it had previously exceeded its take of the valuable fish.
It was revealed in August that Japanese fishers and their suppliers from other countries plundered world southern bluefin tuna stocks, secretly catching up to three times the annual Japanese quota each year for the past 20 years.
"Whether it is $1 billion, $4 billion or $6 billion it is in anybody's language an horrendous overcatch," Australian Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz told ABC Radio.
But Senator Abetz said the Japanese government had now accepted a vastly reduced quota, and needed to be taken at its word.
"Given that there is now an acknowledgement on their part that there has been a substantial overcatch, their willingness to halve the allocated quota as some recompense for that which has occurred in the past, we can be confident we are moving into a new era of genuine cooperation in relation to tuna fishery."
He said the most important and significant breakthrough was the Japanese acknowledgement that there had been an overcatch and acceptance of a substantial penalty.
"That is indicative of a country that is willing to acknowledge that things went wrong," he said.
"They do have to make up and I think in those circumstances, we can be relatively certain that they will cooperate.
"What I do know is that the new Japanese government has done the right thing and has agreed to take this cut. What previous governments may or may not have done is a matter for speculation, albeit very disappointing that the overcatch did occur for so many years."
The Japanese overcatch was uncovered by Australian industry figures who scrutinised publicly available market documents. On a 6,000 tonne national annual quota, Japan had been taking anything between 12,000 and 20,000 tonnes - severely damaging the fishery.
A report by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin found Japan illegally caught up to $6 billion worth of fish.
If Japan had stuck to its quota, the fish stock would now be five times larger. Japan's quota has now been halved to 3,000 tonnes a year.
No different to the whales, after they have done it they will probably admit they have over-harvested many of the whale species. Well in their terms, it will be that the findings of there (psuedo) scientific research is that their current quote was far too much.
Sorry about that, but japanise have no idea when it comes to fishing smartly. I think they should be called the gimmy, gimmy tribe. and thanks for the starfish in tassy. >
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