Australia Might Cut Bluefin Tuna Catch 25% Over 2 Yearsff

Source: Mainichi Daily News

Australian Associated Press reported Wednesday that Australia is ready to cut its southern bluefin tuna catch by 25 percent over two years.

The news agency said Environment Minister Tony Burke made the remark to AAP on Tuesday, but the minister's office told Kyodo News on Wednesday no final decision has been made.

The AAP report said that over the next two years Australia's tuna catch would be reduced to 4,015 tons from 5,265 tons.

“It was a tough decision which recognized that further international action was needed if we were to have a chance of saving this important fishery from collapse,” AAP quoted Burke as saying.

The report follows a decision last Friday by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, which met in South Korea, to reduce catches by 20 percent.

Burke was also quoted by AAP as saying Australia's $187 million southern bluefin tuna industry, particularly in South Australia, will be effected and the government will work with the industry on how the reductions will be spread over the next two years.

Already the decision has received criticism from the industry and environmentalists alike.

The head of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association Brian Jeffriess said, based on the news report, that while cuts are needed, the number is too high.

“To put it in a nutshell, this is worst possible outcome for Australia,” he told AAP.

Hagen Stehr, chairman of fish farmers Clean Seas Tuna Co., told AAP, “This does not only affect one industry, it affects the exporters, it affects the freight companies.”

He added his company would need to cut jobs and other companies would have to as well.

A “shell-shocked” Stehr said he will now consider what action can be taken, including avenues for appeal.

The environmental group Greenpeace, on its website, also condemned the minister, saying he had failed his “first test” as environment minister by making the cuts too low.

Genevieve Quirk, a Greenpeace oceans campaigner, said over-fishing has led the tuna population to drop to only 4.6 percent of “unfished” levels and that “this critically endangered fish needs to be protected and allowed to recover to a healthy population.”

Greenpeace is calling for the suspension of all commercial bluefin tuna fishing.