BlueFin talks go well

Southern bluefin tuna talks in Japan recently ended well both for the future of the tuna fishery and for New Zealand fishers, says Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton.

“The international community has made some tough decisions that will hopefully allow the southern bluefin tuna fishery to rebuild," Jim Anderton said today in Wellington.

“We went into these talks wanting urgent action - the fishery just couldn’t handle the combined levels of legal and illegal catch.

“We’ve now got that. The Commission has agreed to reduce world catch limits for southern bluefin tuna, and tightened catch reporting systems to cut down on illegal take.

“This will hopefully set southern bluefin tuna on the long road to recovery.”

New Zealand’s Commissioner at the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, Stan Crothers, says this meeting achieved in one week what other international fisheries organisations have taken years to grapple with.

He says Commission members agreed to reduce the world’s Total Allowable Catch from 14,800 to 11,800 tonnes; and a number of countries agreed to further voluntary actions that would take the world’s legal catch below 11,000 tonnes in the next fishing year.

In addition, Commission members agreed to a series of compliance measures to reduce the huge level of illegal catch in the fishery (some estimates put this as high as 10,000 tonnes/year). These include stricter regulations around catch documentation and shipment, bringing in a vessel monitoring system, and strengthening the observer programme.