Big nations block curbs on tuna overfishing
Manila, 6 December 2012 (AFP) – Efforts to curb overfishing of tuna in the Pacific were blocked by big countries that refused to cut their catch at a meeting of tuna-fishing nations in the Asia-Pacific, delegates said Thursday. The Western and Central Pacific Commission, comprising 30 member nations and territories, ended a five-day meeting in Manila with minor agreements to help tuna stocks recover, said observers who attended. The commission had hoped to address concerns that many tuna species were being fished beyond sustainable levels in the Western Pacific, a region that produces more than 50 percent of the world’s tuna catch. However Palau fishing official Nanette Malsol said many big nations refused to cut their catch, especially of bigeye tuna which the commission said should ideally have its catch reduced by 30 percent. “The big fishing nations did not make any significant commitments to cut their overfishing of bigeye tuna. It is the big fishing nations … that have historically overfished bigeye tuna,” she said in a statement. Malsol, who also chairs the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, a coalition of small Pacific island nations, blamed the European Union, the United States, Japan and many Asian nations for taking most of the adult bigeye tuna with “longline” fishing vessels. Only China agreed voluntarily to cut its catch by such vessels by 10 percent while South Korea and Taiwan both agreed to cut theirs by two percent, Malsol said. […]
