Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 315
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A protest by Libya has cast doubt on an agreement to prevent tuna overfishing in the Atlantic Ocean, after the country said it's unhappy with its annual catch limit.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, one of five major international tuna regulators, decided Wednesday to slash the annual catch in both the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Member countries will see their fishing quotas for bluefin tuna cut, in principle, by a uniform 23.2 percent from 2007 to 2010, according to Masanori Miyahara, a research director at Japan's Fisheries Agency. Miyahara represented Japan at the commission's extraordinary meeting in Tokyo yesterday. Libya and new member country Turkey took issue with their allotted quotas, claiming that they are too small. "Their [Libya's] actual catches in the coming four years may far exceed their catches allotted by the ICCAT,'' Miyahara said. "Members who objected to proposals at the gathering will not be bound by the proposals." Miyahara said that Libya has issued a complaint against the fishing limit imposed on it, a move that could delay final agreement on the plan until at least Aug. 12. The proposed new restrictions mean the total catch of tuna, popular for use in sashimi and sushi cuisine, by ICCAT members in the two sea areas will decline from 33,000 tons in 2006 to 25,500 tons in 2010. (Bloomberg) |
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