Japan to Tighten Control of Coastal Bluefin Tuna Fishing

July 1, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Fisheries Agency is set to tighten rules on coastal fishing of Pacific bluefin tuna, effective from July, in a bid to recover the stocks of the popular fish for sushi lovers.

Specifically, catch quotas for tuna weighing 30 kilograms or more will newly be set for the country's 47 prefectures. Currently, the agency regulates catches of smaller tuna by allocating quotas, according to agency officials.

Prefectural governors will make inshore tuna fishers submit reports on their harvest and can order them to stop fishing to keep their catches below the respective limits.

In January, the agency introduced legal rules to punish offshore Pacific bluefin tuna fishers if their catches exceed quotas. Violators will be fined up to 2 million yen or imprisoned for up to three years.

Coastal bluefin tuna fishers will be punished similarly if they break the envisaged rules.

The new tuna catch quotas will be allocated to the prefectures in accordance with recent results.

But as the total catches in the coming season from July through next March will be limited to only 733 tons, far lower than the annual limit of 3,230 tons for offshore catches, costal tuna fishers criticize the quota system as threatening their right to live.

The agency plans to implement the quota system without any modification. But it is considering using a reserve quota of up to 725 tons allocated to Japan under international rules for coastal fishers, if necessary, the officials said. Jiji Press