Posted on 01/23/2007 1:13:07 PM PST by cogitator
Environmentalists called Monday for a radical overhaul of fishing practices to prevent a worldwide collapse in tuna stocks as international conservation bodies opened their first joint meeting on the species. The five-day meeting in the western Japanese city of Kobe will look at ways to share information among regions to monitor tuna numbers and control illegal fishing vessels, officials said.
Environmentalists called on participants to come up with substantive measures to protect the fish, which are highly prized in Japan.
Greenpeace said it was "high time" for governments to recognize the seriousness of the tuna issue.
Governments "must acknowledge that a radical change to fisheries management is urgently required if they are to prevent the collapse of tuna stocks across the globe," it said.
Simon Cripps, director of the WWF's global marine programme, said the talks in Japan "provide an opportunity for all interested nations to adopt approaches that ensure good practices to protect tuna, other marine life and the well-being of coastal communities."
He said scientific advice to governments about conservation measures has gone ignored for too long.
"Sustainable management of the world's tuna fisheries should be possible, if the will can be found," he said in a statement.
The meeting is expected to adopt an action plan Friday to cooperate on the conservation and management of tuna stocks, said Takaaki Sakamoto, a Japanese official attending the conference.
"Our goal should be to achieve sustainable use of tuna resources for the future and to prove both domestically and internationally that maintaining tuna fishing is possible," Toshiro Shirasu, the head of Japan's Fisheries Agency, said in opening remarks.
Two international fishing industry groups have called on the meeting to declare a moratorium on the use of any additional large tuna vessels to stop the stocks from diminishing further.
The meeting brings together five tuna conservation bodies that cover different regions, including the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. Representatives of 60 countries or areas are taking part, officials said.
Japan eats a quarter of the world's tuna, more than any other country, but faces pressure from environmentalists, who have blamed the global fad for Japanese food for bringing tuna numbers to the brink of eventual extinction.
An international commission in November reduced the world's gross catch of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean from 32,000 tons in 2006 to 29,500 tons this year, a move likely to lead to an import crunch in Japan.
Japan has also accepted a major cut in its quota for southern bluefin tuna in the Pacific Ocean as punishment for overfishing.
I prefer tuna-safe dolphin
I could go for a nice blue fin tuna steak right now! Dongang (Taiwan) Blue Fin Tuna Festival starts the end of May!
Great gourmets think alike.....
Canned tuna was much better when it contained some dolphin. :=) Dolphin-free tuna, yucccch!
I was having dinner one night with my brother and his wife, and they had put the salad bowl in the sink, even though it still had salad in it. No room around the counters I guess.
I wanted some more, so I grabbed the bowl, scraped the salad into my plate and put the fork in my mouth that had been in the bowl.
I thought..."Tuna? I didn't know they put tuna in this..." and turned around with a quizzical look, which quickly change to horror as I saw the cat on the floor chowing down on some canned cat food...ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See #22.........I'm hongry.......
Nancy Pelosi is doing her share to save the tuna by jacking up the minimum wage.
Aw com'on! I thought we had a Magnusson bill or somethog protecting them, and the Dims quit eatinf Tuna sandwiches... the again maybe that's why Pelosi wants to exempt Samoa from the new minimum wage.
Somebody's gunning for Bill Parcells?
This article may cause you some concern ;-)
I love tuna steak.
Damn, if you like beer too, we'd have a lot to talk about.
GERMAN BEER!!.........
Cat food tastes better; 90% of senior citizens can't be wrong.
You think that's bad? A friend of mine has a huge Labrador Retriever. It eats a lot, and we went to the store to buy a large bag of dog food. We were in line to check out and a woman behind him asked if he had a dog.
The "what a moron!" look on my buddy's face was priceless, and I knew what it meant: he was going to toy with her. He told her that no, he was starting The Purina Diet again although he probably shouldn't -- he said he had ended up in the hospital last time, but that he'd lost 50 pounds before he awakened in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of his orifices and IVs in both arms.
He told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. He said that the food is nutritionally complete so he was going to try it again.
I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with his story, particularly a big tall guy who was behind the woman.
Horrified, she asked why he ended up in the hospital -- had the Purina made him sick? He told her no; he'd been sitting in the middle of the street licking his balls and a car hit him.
The woman turned fire-engine red, and I helped the tall guy up off the floor.
I had fresh ,grilled tuna steak for the first time a number of years ago in Panama City (Fla).It was a revelation- outstanding.
I bet you could not believe you were eating fish!.......
But that only happens around election time when the Democrats are out of power.
That's not tuna, that's albacore, tuna is a fillet or steak for the grill:)
That's not tuna, that's albacore, tuna is a fillet or steak for the grill:)
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