A six-day international meeting for the southern bluefin tuna industry began in Taipei Saturday, with participants expected to decide policy that will lead to a new total allowance catch (TAC) in 2012, the organizer said.
According to the Fisheries Agency under the Council of Agriculture, the most important mission of this year's meeting is to finalize a management procedure for the the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) , a quota-setting body comprising Australia, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan.
The management procedure is scheduled to be finalized in 2010 for implementation in 2011. It will be the basis for setting the TAC beginning in 2012, the Canberra-based commission said on its website.
The CCSBT has agreed to reduce fishing of southern bluefin by an average of 20 percent this year and in 2011 from 11,810 metric tons to an average of 9,449 tons.
A total of 90 representatives from the six members of CCSBT, three cooperating non-members -- the Philippines, South Africa and the European Union -- and several non-profit organizations are participating in the meeting.
Participants will take part in a series of meetings from Oct. 9 to Oct. 14.
Annual southern bluefin catches reached 80,000 tons in the 1960s. The commission was set up in in 1994 amid declining fish populations.
