EXCLUSIVE: Japan, Others to Hold Emergency Bluefin Tuna Meeting Sunday

Tokyo, May 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan and other economies including the
United States are considering holding an emergency meeting in Spain on
Sunday to discuss cooperation to prevent overfishing of bluefin tuna in the
Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, Jiji Press learned on Monday.
The participating economies, which will also include the European
Union, Canada and China, are also seen to confirm their commitment to
restore tuna stocks in the areas, informed sources said.
The meeting will take place one day ahead of a joint meeting of
experts and a working group meeting in Barcelona of five tuna stock
management bodies, including the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.
In March, a proposal by Monaco to ban international trade in
Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna was rejected at a meeting among
signatory countries of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also known as the Washington
Convention.
Japan, which is the largest tuna fishing country in the world and
argues for the ICCAT's role in tuna stock recovery, strongly opposed the
proposed bluefin tuna trade ban at the CITES meeting and locked horns with
the United States and the EU that supported the proposal.
The coming meeting in Spain is thus also intended to help them mend
fences, the sources said.
The participants may issue a statement expressing their
determination to toughen tuna fishing management and restore tuna stocks in
cooperation, the sources said. Japan is set to demonstrate its resolve to
spearhead international efforts to tackle overfishing of tuna, the sources
said.


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