January 22, 2007

Japan seeks to curb large-net use in tuna fishing
 

Japan would ask international tuna conservation bodies this week to join forces to curb the use of large encircling nets for catching tuna owing to a downfall in tuna stocks due to overfishing, reported Kyodo news agency quoting government sources as saying.

In the first joint meeting of the five international tuna conservations bodies in the port city of Kobe from Monday, the Japanese government seeks to point this out.

Japan would point out that global markets for canned tuna have diversified, making monitoring purse seine fishing activities through the market difficult, according to government sources, the report said.

Though the US and Europe have for long been significant markets for canned tuna, but increasing global demand for such products has led to a dramatic rise in vessels using the purse seine fishing method, the sources said, according to Kyodo.

As a result, there has been growing fear that the method could hamper conservation efforts as it rounds up all fish caught in encircling nets, even smaller ones that would otherwise grow bigger, the report said.

In the document, Japan would also voice concerns over the growing fishing activities of large-scale longline vessels, the main source of tuna for sashimi, the report said adding Japan was once the single outstanding market for sashimi and was therefore possible to effectively monitor longline vessels through the inflow of tuna to the Japanese market.

Increasing consumption of sashimi in China, Europe and the US has made the monitoring task difficult, they said, Kyodo reported.