Five international tuna conservation groups meeting in Kobe, western Japan, have adopted a plan for protecting global stocks of the fish, a popular staple of sushi cuisine whose numbers are dwindling.
The plan calls for standardization of fishing regulations across borders on grounds that variation in rules encourages fishermen to catch tuna in more lax jurisdictions. It also suggests new fishing quotas.
The proposal directs the organizations to share data on poaching, and it recommends the introduction of a monitoring system for tuna trawlers to track their movements.
The effectiveness of the plan was questioned by some conference participants.
Hiroshi Haneda, president of fishing company Haneda Suisan in
â€With so many in the fishing industry lacking financial resources, it’s questionable†whether global efforts to track boats will succeed, he said.
The Gland, Switzerland-based World Wildlife Fund for Nature said the conference didn't do enough to reduce fishing capacity to sustainable levels.
â€They have failed to agree on any concrete actions,†the wildlife conservation group said in a statement. “Their only agreement was to gather more data and talk more often.â€
The five-day Joint Tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organization Conference was convened at the urging of
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, one of the groups in attendance, plans to hold a meeting in