Japan Starts Domestic Talks on Tuna Catch Quotas

September 4, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Fisheries Agency held on Monday the first meeting of an expert panel to discuss new catch quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna for domestic fishers.

The working group of the fisheries policy council will hear opinions from tuna fishing industry people to decide as early as next month how to allocate Pacific bluefin tuna quotas from next year.

International catch limits are in place for Pacific bluefin tuna due to stocks standing at historically low levels. The ceiling for Japan's annual catches is set at 4,882 tons for large fish weighing at least 30 kilograms and 4,007 tons for lighter ones.

Currently, the agency allocates some two-thirds of the large tuna quota and nearly half of the small fish quota to offshore fishers, who use purse seines enabling large catches, based on past harvest results. Coastal fishers, mostly small businesses, complain that excessive catch quotas are given to purse seine fishing.

A focal point will be whether the working group can come up with a quota distribution idea acceptable to both sides, pundits said. Jiji Press