Why doesn't this surprise me.

[markpeta]

Japan accused of stealing $2b of tuna
Saturday Aug 12 00:02 AEST
Japan has stolen $2 billion worth of southern bluefin tuna over the past 20 years, potentially killing off the stock, Australia's top fisheries manager says.

An investigation into the fishery found Japanese fishers and suppliers from other countries caught up to three times the Japanese quota each year for the past 20 years and hid it, The Sydney Morning Herald reports on Saturday.

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority's managing director, Richard McLoughlin, said it was an enormous international fraud.

"Essentially the Japanese have stolen $2 billion worth of fish from the international community, and have been sitting in meetings for 15 years saying they are as pure as the driven snow. And it's outrageous," Mr McLoughlin said at an Australian National University seminar.







The official findings of the inquiry were presented at an international meeting in Canberra in July, but remained confidential.

The Japanese overcatch was uncovered by Australian industry figures who scrutinised publicly available market documents.

"It's just been revealed that ... on a 6,000-tonne national quota, Japan's been catching anything between 12,000 and 20,000 tonnes for the last 20 years, and hiding it," Mr McLoughlin said.

"And has probably killed that stock... and that's one of our major fisheries in Australia."

The southern bluefin tune is one of the world's most expensive fish and grow to about 200 kilograms.

A $280 million industry is based on catching the fish in the Great Australian Bight and cage-fattening at Port Lincoln.

[Lucky_Phill]

How come the general fishing public knew this was going on at the time, but the Govt failed to see it ?

This is the sort of news that needs to make Front Page in the print Media, Top Story on Current Affairs and headlines on the 6 o'clock news.

It is certainly something that has to be sent to Federal Members of Parliament, the Opposition and Decision makers in the DPI & F as well as the Export industry chiefs.

Next there'll be a report uncovering the news that Japan has been killing Whales for food instead of research !!!!!! > >

Phill

[MyEscape]

There a lot of deals that are done on an international level. The business with the whaling is one that springs to mind.

You wouldn't know how much our government probably does know, and might "allow" it to go on or otherwise the Japanese might take more whales for example.

Who knows, might have to wait 30 years for Federal Cabinet to release their documents t know the truth of these sorts of matters, however as we all know, it too late then and the pollies are long gone.

That's probably why we have to wait 30 years for it, remember just recently Gough Whitlam was one of the very few pollies alive 30 years after leading the country.

Steve