Editorial
Listing bluefin tuna as endangered extreme, but Japan must watch step on int'l stage
The issue of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna is to be discussed at a meeting on the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) -- also known as the Washington Convention, which prohibits the international trade of endangered wild species and has been signed by 175 countries -- that is set to begin in Qatar on Saturday.
Designating bluefin tuna as an endangered species seems like an extreme measure, but this month, the EU followed in the steps of the U.S. in announcing its support for a proposal to ban the international trade of the species. Japan has begun to appeal to signatory states in order to obtain one-third of the convention votes necessary to quash the proposal, but the prospects that such activity will yield the desired results remain grim.
The amount of bluefin in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has dropped from a peak of 300,000 metric tons to less than 80,000 tons, and Japan does not contest that tuna numbers have dwindled as a result of overfishing. Rather, it maintains that fishing in compliance with quotas will allow the species to recover. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), comprised of 49 nations and regions including Japan, the U.S., and parts of Europe, has for this purpose established fishing quotas that have been cut back every year; last year the total catch permitted was 22,000 tons, and this year, the figure is 13,500.
However, fishing quotas basically exist in name only. While this state of affairs can be attributed to fish poaching and other illicit activity due to lax oversight and penalties, tuna fishing for fish farming geared towards the Japanese market -- in which young tuna are caught by coastal nations and released into pens, where they are fed vast amounts of mackerel and squid, then exported to Japan -- is often cited as the basis for the objections against bluefin fishing. The practice was begun in the 1990s under the leadership of Japanese trade corporations and others, and has since spread throughout the Mediterranean. Some 80 percent of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean bluefin tuna caught through this method are exported to Japan, allowing for the widespread distribution of fatty tuna, once considered a luxury food item, at low prices.
The push to designate bluefin tuna as an endangered species and to adopt a trade embargo on it has arisen out of impatience towards the merely nominal tuna quotas, and from the view that banning international trade in the fish is the quickest way to a recovery of resources. Last fall, Monaco, which is active in promoting environmental conservation, proposed the ban, and recently major fishing nations Spain and France decided to support it, reversing their earlier positions.
If the ban is passed at the meeting, Japan plans to file a "reservation," a right that is given to CITES members. Countries that have lodged a reservation are permitted to fish in international waters and to import from other countries that are also taking a reservation. The approximately 40 deep-sea tuna fishing vessels stationed at ports in Miyagi Prefecture and elsewhere have an annual catch of about 2,000 tons in the Atlantic Ocean. Continued operations are a matter of life or death for those in the industry, and the use of the "reservation" strategy, albeit a loophole, could be unavoidable.
However, we must be prepared to face the backlash of international public opinion. At the Academy Awards ceremony that took place this week in Los Angeles, "The Cove," a film exposing the practice of dolphin hunting on the Japanese coast from an animal rights perspective, won the award for best documentary feature. A meeting of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) signatories is set to take place in Nagoya this October, where some 7,000 participants from about 190 countries and regions will gather to protect the diversity of plants and animals.
Japan and the Japanese have always loved nature and have made dedicated efforts to establishing harmony with our natural environment. As such, we must make sure that we are not labeled a nation with no concern for the protection of wild species.
(Mainichi Japan) March 12, 2010