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Greenpeace Rejects Southern Bluefin Tuna Deal ff

10 October 2003 Australia

The Greenpeace environmental group has strongly criticized a new agreement on Southern Bluefin Tuna, warning the deal could lead to the collapse of the fishery.

The decision sees New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, and Australia limited to 14,030 tons, with Australia keeping its individual limit of more than 5,000 tons.

Both the tuna industry and the Australian government have hailed the move as providing long-term sustainability.

However, a Greenpeace oceans campaigner, Quentin Hanich, says it is only a paper deal, which fails to reflect the reality that tuna stocks are seriously endangered.

"Continuing to come up with these figures on paper like this, and continuing to increase and put aside new catches for new member countries without actually reducing the catch, or... putting a moratorium on the fish until the fish stock recovers, is really a bit like running around saying 'it's good, it's good' when the reality outside is it's dumping rain," Hanich said.