Government Must Take Action on Tuna Extinction : Melbourne Indymedia

But Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton says Australia has also been caught catching more bluefin tuna than it is allowed to.

Greens leader Bob Brown has called on the Prime Minister to take up the issue of Japan's illegal fishing of 'threatened' southern blue fin.

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority says Japan has a 6,000-tonne national quota and illegally catches between 12,000 and 20,000 tonnes per season and hides it. They say it is largely because the Japanese only ever allow Japanese observers on their boats...

In the 1980s, Australia, Japan and New Zealand set up the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) to manage the fishery. The nations agreed on a quota system to prevent further depletion of overfished tuna stocks. But the CCSBT says Japan never stood by the deal.

Senator Brown is also calling for Australian observers to be placed on Japanese fishing ships. "The Australian Government should insist that Australian observers be on the Japanese ships and that we get an independent observation going on here."

Greens Senator Rachel Siewart agrees. She took the issue to the Senate today.

"After questioning in the Senate today on illegal tuna fishing, it is obvious that all we will see is one of the Environment Minister's talkfests, the same as he has given us with whaling," she said. "This species is facing extinction before our eyes. The Minister's obligations are crystal clear. Instead of platitudes about 'win-win' situations, it's about time we saw action from this Minister, not words."

Senator Siewert has urged Environment Minister Ian Campbell to do his job - list the species as 'threatened' under Australia's EPBC Act, and nominate the species to be listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

In September 2005, the Minister's 'Threatened Species Scientific Committee' recommended the species be listed under the EPBC Act. The Minister ignored this advice.

The revelations that the true Japanese catch was between two and three times higher than reported is grounds for a review of this decision, according to Senator Siewert.

In the Senate, Senator Siewert proposed some simple measures for the Government to protect rapidly depleting stocks of Southern Bluefin Tuna. "This is one of the rare cases where we have the means at our disposal, nationally and internationally, to take action to arrest the slide toward extinction," she said in a media release.

Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton says new monitoring systems are working well, and that is how the issue of overfishing has come to a head. But he says that it is not just Japan.

Despite blowing the whistle on Japan, Mr Anderton says Australia has also been caught catching more bluefin tuna than it is allowed to.

Mr Anderton says now those countries know they have been caught, they must make sure the overfishing stops now. He says he will be pushing hard for the offending countries' quotas to be lowered as punishment. He says he will be making his opinion clear at a regional meeting on the issue in Tokyo at the end of the year.

But Tuna Boat Owners Association president Brian Jeffriess says there is no hard evidence for overfishing. "That's a huge amount of fish and a huge amount of money - it's a bit hard to believe frankly," he said. "Think again - people need to be careful to check some of that facts if they know them before they speculate.

"Pick on Japan happens to be flavour of the month and people need to be very careful about it."

SOURCES:
Perth Indymedia
Greens seek action from PM over illegal tuna fishing claims - ABC
Japan slammed for '$2bn tuna fraud' - The Australian
Greens Media Releases
Industry questions illegal tuna fishing claims - ABC
Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna