Situation Surrounding High-Grade Japanese Tuna Undergoes Changeff

Something extraordinary is happening to the world's market for Japanese sliced raw tuna, or “sashimi”.

Representatives of the Turkish tuna growing industry visited Japan at the end of last year and met with Fisheries Agency and environmental protection group officials.

They said Turkey is adhering to international fishing regulations and wanted to press ahead with gathering data and conducting surveys on tuna resources in cooperation with Japan.

The visit took place after the Fisheries Agency said Turkish fishermen were likely seizing more tuna for fish husbandry than the amount an international organization has set.

It also followed Japanese supermarkets suspending the sale of Turkish-grown tuna.

Many people turn a harsh eye toward Japan’s “tuna economy” that swallows great quantities of natural marine resources.

It has opened the way for fishermen in other countries to catch young tuna and grow them in seawater ponds until they become big, fatty and ready to be shipped to Japan to suit Japanese palates.

A businessman dealing with growing fish said, “Most (tuna grown in ponds in other countries) are bound for Japan. Dealers throughout the world are making desperate efforts to expand their (market) share in Japan.”

Fishermen in other countries catch young tuna in masses and grow them in ponds. They fly a small plane sometime to locate a school of tuna and catch them with one throw of a net.

They pull the net slowly and release the fish in a 50 meter wide pond set up in the sea. They feed them sardines and other small fish until they become fatty.

Such so-called “fish farming” started in Australia in the early 1990s and spread to Spain, Croatia, Malta and Mexico.

A Japanese businessman said consumers can now afford to eat good “toro” (oily bluefin tuna meat) at “kaiten” conveyor-belt sushi bars or buy it at supermarkets due to tuna fish farming. He said the fish meat is popular.

Japan imported about 3,000 tons of tuna grown in ponds about 10 years ago. The volume last year may have totaled about 35,000 tons. The increase in the import has helped reduce prices of high-grade tuna from more than 5,000 yen per kilogram during the period of Japan's bubble economy to the range of a thousand yen.

Masanori Miyahara, director of the Fisheries Agency’s coastal and offshore fisheries division, said that there is concern that the rapid expansion of fishery husbandry may have further complicated the control of tuna fish and deteriorated the condition on the fish.

Data provided by tuna growers can tell the volume of shipments but not the number of fish caught. In addition, the flow of money and tuna is said to be complex.

Citing an example, industry sources said a Spanish-funded company based in Libya used a Tunisian-registered ship to catch tuna and hauled the fish to ponds in Turkey, Greece and Malta.

They said fish husbandries are "data black holes" as there have been virtually no instances of tuna growth and death rates ever made public.

Arata Izawa of the World Wide Fund for Nature said Japanese companies, such as trading firms, are widely criticized because of rising concern that random seizures of tuna exacerbate tuna resource problems.

Izawa expressed the hope that consumers would focus their attention on the question of declining tuna stocks.

An expert panel has called for a 50 percent cutback in the seizure of Southern Bluefin Tuna next year in an effort to cope with the deterioration of the fish.