[world] japan kills rare tuna market
Tuna are fast swimmers (they have been measured at 77 km/h (48 mph) but they’re not fast enough for the Japanese.
Richard McLoughlin, managing director, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, has found that 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.
"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. It's outrageous."
Mr McLoughlin was speaking at an ANU seminar in a speech recorded and posted on the internet. The official findings of the inquiry were presented at an international meeting in Canberra in July, but remained confidential.
One of the world's most expensive fish, southern bluefin migrate around the temperate waters of Australia 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.
An independent review was ordered after the Federal Government put its concerns to Japan but the Japanese also sought a review of Australian southern bluefin tuna farming.
Mr McLoughlin said attempts had been made for years to put satellite monitoring systems on the Japanese vessels. "They won't have a bar of it," he said.
"This is a defining case," said Glenn Sant, the Oceania director of the global wildlife trade monitoring organisation, Traffic. "People can no longer believe what they are told. What we now have to have is transparency."
The findings also raised a red flag over the Japanese whale fishery, said Humane Society International's Nicola Beynon. "Any countries that are contemplating lifting the moratorium and letting Japan go whaling must be concerned about the probability that it will be misreported as well," she said.
Based on the article by Andrew Darby, August 12, 2006
Richard McLoughlin, managing director, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, has found that 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.
"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. It's outrageous."
Mr McLoughlin was speaking at an ANU seminar in a speech recorded and posted on the internet. The official findings of the inquiry were presented at an international meeting in Canberra in July, but remained confidential.
One of the world's most expensive fish, southern bluefin migrate around the temperate waters of Australia 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.
An independent review was ordered after the Federal Government put its concerns to Japan but the Japanese also sought a review of Australian southern bluefin tuna farming.
Mr McLoughlin said attempts had been made for years to put satellite monitoring systems on the Japanese vessels. "They won't have a bar of it," he said.
"This is a defining case," said Glenn Sant, the Oceania director of the global wildlife trade monitoring organisation, Traffic. "People can no longer believe what they are told. What we now have to have is transparency."
The findings also raised a red flag over the Japanese whale fishery, said Humane Society International's Nicola Beynon. "Any countries that are contemplating lifting the moratorium and letting Japan go whaling must be concerned about the probability that it will be misreported as well," she said.
Based on the article by Andrew Darby, August 12, 2006
posted by James Higham @ 17:42
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