Annual fishing quotas for bluefin tuna in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean will remain unchanged in 2014, an international meeting on tuna fishing decided Monday, despite stiff opposition from Japan.
After marathon talks, a conference of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded that the annual quotas would remain at 13,400 tons in the eastern Atlantic and 1,750 tons in the western Atlantic.Sergi Tudela, the head of fisheries in the Mediterranean for the wildlife conservation group WWF, said while the meeting was underway that Japan and other "contracting parties" had pressed for quotas to be increased by 400 tons.
Japan is the world's biggest consumer of tuna, which is highly prized in sushi restaurants.
Some 80% of Atlantic bluefin tuna fished out of the Mediterranean ends up in the Japanese sushi market.
Stocks of bluefin tuna are thought to have fallen by at least 85% in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, where they come to spawn in the warmer waters, since the start of the industrial fishing era.
Fish stocks now seem to have stabilised, which a new scientific count is expected to confirm in February.
NewsOnJapan
Japan is the world's biggest consumer of tuna, which is highly prized in sushi restaurants.
Some 80% of Atlantic bluefin tuna fished out of the Mediterranean ends up in the Japanese sushi market.
Stocks of bluefin tuna are thought to have fallen by at least 85% in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, where they come to spawn in the warmer waters, since the start of the industrial fishing era.
Fish stocks now seem to have stabilised, which a new scientific count is expected to confirm in February.
NewsOnJapan
