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Bluefin tuna ban proposal rejected

Japan’s sushi industry has breathed a sigh of relief today, after an attempt by the UN to ban the bluefin tuna trade failed:

Canada, Japan and several poorer nations opposed the measure, which was defeated by 68 votes to 20, saying the measure would help to destroy their fishing economies.

A vote on an EU amendment that weakened the original Monaco proposal, but still endorsed the ban, was also defeated by 72 votes to 43.

In order to pass, the measures would have needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Here’s how one Japanese TV channel, NTV, covered the bluefin tuna ban proposal (this report aired 2 days ago):

We are shown how bluefin tuna is no longer sold at restaurants in Monaco. One Japanese sushi chef says that they have no choice but to comply with the ban, even though some of his associates wish they could serve it.

A French fisherman spoke to the reporters at a dock where fishing boats were being dismantled. He said that there were “many” bluefin tuna and he and other fishermen would gladly provide Japan with the fish it loves if the restrictions were lifted.

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73 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 19, 2010 at 10:30 am

Categories: Japanese Food Tags:

Oshiri

Thanks be the Lord. Thank God. Hallelujah! Yippee! Hooray!

More tuna for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Yeay!

Smart people prevailed!

Take that, Sea Shepherd! hahahahahaha LOL

DC

Great satire Oshiri! You’re really succeeding in your vile efforts to make the Japanese look like spoiled, stupid brats.
Oshiri

OK, OK, OK,

more Tuna for

EVERYBODY!

Yeay!
JackCrow

Try counseling, does wonders, look at Sopranos…

Oshiri

Here’s your counseling, Monsieur:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

Yamato

They’ll be expensive when they’re all gone…

LB

Tuna will get expensive, yes, but it won’t ever be “all gone”. They are already farming tuna in the Med and in Japan, but right now farmed tuna is very expensive compared to wild tuna. If the numbers in the wild deplete so that less are caught that will push the price up and perhaps farmed tuna will become the cheaper option.

I seem to recall reading in the news that one of the issues with the proposed CITES ban was it did not allow room for differentiation: bluefin tuna was bluefin tuna was bluefin tuna. Farmed, fished or brought into the present by a Klingon bird-of-prey that had been sent back to the past, all international trade in the species would have been banned.

Dan

Farm-raised tuna faces some major uphill battles, just like any other carnivorous fish. Farm-raised salmon are a prime example: they have to have color added so that they look “normal” on your plate, are less healthy for you (much lower omega-3 levels) and they’re worse for the environment (the farms feed them ground fish at levels higher than they’d eat naturally). North Atlantic farm stocks are also filled with genetic defects but I don’t think there are any health concerns for consumers there.

It seems a lot of this has to do with the unnatural diet and environment they live in which spells trouble for tuna because they get their special color and flavor because they’re such a muscular, high-speed fish. You’re not going to be able to get an enclosure big enough to sustain that naturally and high-end sushi chefs aren’t going to be happy with the taste that results.

I’m not saying all farm-raised fish are bad, China has been doing it for thousands of years but they use plant-eating fish usually.

I’m sure various tuna species will be around for awhile but there’s no doubt the bluefin industry isn’t going to collapse at the rate things are going.

deanS

There maybe a health concern for farmed Salmon, they have been finding high levels of PCB’s in some farmed Salmon.

For anyone interested checkout and download a pocket checklist of safe and sustainable fish.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_recommendations.aspx
deanS

btw speaking of fish and methods
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2010/01/22/salmon-farming-can-be-sustainable/

Unluckly it still sounds like a bit of a start-up but I hope they do well.

Mark

I’ve read that farmed Atlantic bluefin in the Med are wild fish taken from their spawning grounds and fattened in captivity. That is probably why CITES does not differentiate between ‘farmed’ bluefin or caught bluefin. Taking the fish from their spawning grounds is also a double whammy as it helps deplete their numbers even further.

LB

Canada, Japan and several poorer nations opposed the measure,

Australia, China and Korea also opposed it.

toro

Mr. Oshiri there you go with your constant racist deal…Jap is just as wrong, unacceptable, ignorant, deragotory and bad as the N word toward African Americans…

bluefin tuna agreed this is more an issue than whales

Oshiri

But I am a Jap! I’m living it, ya’ll, to the full, see, so sorry if I offend, don’t mean to get you all on the bend. Jap is what I am, been called that, nastily, lived the downbeat.
But now I’m proud to live it, y’all, just like the Brothers, they ain’t ‘fraid of it, ya gott know not to point it out, dude, sometimes, keeping it real, keeping it quiet is the way to go, dawg!

Yo, so chillax, brother.

Gimme some tuna baby
Kevin not kevin

What you are or aren’t I’m not sure, but your posts are extremely annoying.

Did you just find this site and decide to troll because you were bored?

toro

There’s majorly far too much hate, you just have to be the cause man unbelievable, sad and just low

Never do people get all bent out of shape about people eating hamburgers, fur coats, even taxidermies, shark meat, so whatever man
toro

Listen up dude I will very strongly tell you racism, anything of hurt, prejudice, hate, discrimination etc should never ever be allowed in fact those who are should be completely banned on the internet PERIOD! Comprende!? Even JP has clear rules, suggest you look at them which you probably never will so I rest my case. And guess what their very first rule says no racism!

Get a life will ya
Life is far too short for b.s

Now this Tuna thing is just silly do this same thing toward those who sell cattle for meat daily, even taxadermists and they would laugh you out of the room. Floridians eat alligator. Australians eat Kangaroo so what lol!

gaijin

Even if the ban on Blue-fin Tuna trade had prevailed it would still done little to halt the over fishing problem. As long as consumers are willing to pay the price (which they will in Japan for sure) somebody is going to go out and fish for them and someone is going to trade in them. The only way to really put a damper on the problem would be at the root of the problem which is the end consumer. Making customers pay a 10,000,000 yen fine and possible jail time for being caught in the act of consuming Bluefin Tuna would be one way to give gluttonous diners something serious to think about. But other than that all the ban on trade would have done would been to have put exorbitant illicit profits in the hands of illicit fisherman and traders while punishing the honest ones that actually pay attention to international laws and bans.

certainly the whole controversy will be over soon enough when there simply are no more wild Blue-fin or any other wild Tuna for that matter to catch.

Oshiri

Or, not Procreate at all. That’s right – no more kids for a while.

Or, they can reduce the size of meals in the U.S. by half as much, but charge the same price. People will thank them for helping them get thin, and there’d be more food to go around the world to the poorer nations!
Funny how equilibrium should work, isn’t it? But we’re only human…..
Stereo

Gaijin, if your proposed measure were effective, there would be no drug dealers in the US. Fishing quota has a good track record of recovering fishing stocks.

RMilner

Not with the Grand Banks cod fishery.

jc

It didn’t work because rules were made to be broken.

http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

NHK last night compared the Doha talks to 16 years ago when Japan failed to qualify for the World Cup in a match at Doha…
http://www.squidoo.com/the-cove Eric

This is a very one-sided report. The important thing here is whether or not bluefin tuna are being hunted sustainably. So they give us one French fisherman, who obviously is not a neutral observer, saying there are “beaucoup, beaucoup” maguro in the sea. Gee, O.K. nuff said!

I thought that what the female newscaster said at the end was strange, that because the ban had a large number of supporters, “This puts Japan in a very tough spot.” I think the failure of the ban puts the tuna in a much tougher spot.

At any rate, Japan is certainly not the hapless victim of uncontrollable outside forces in this case. Japan consumes 80% of the world’s bluefin tuna catch, and the consumption of sushi in general and bluefin tuna in particular has seen an enormous increase here since Japan first became an affluent society back in the ’70s. Despite those facts, just a couple of years ago the Japanese news media were blaming a rise in the price of maguro on increased consumption–in foreign countries!

Oshiri

At least it wasn’t some fugly Japanese fisherman geezer drooling, saying it! The French make it sound respectable (kinda) LOL

Stereo

What you said sounds racism to me.

JackCrow

You forgot you are on a only_Japan_is_perfect site.

kz

kuro ma guro(=bluefin tuna) means black real black.

helical

Careful there, someone might actually believe it.

kuro = black
maguro = tuna
kuromaguro = black tuna

helical

Hm, there are two theories to the etymology of the name “maguro” it seems.

http://gogen-allguide.com/ma/maguro.html

One says that it comes from the phrase 眼黒 (eye black) since all tunas have black eyes.
The other says that because all tunas look like black mounds when viewed from above the water, it comes from the phrase 真黒 (true black).

I stand corrected if you were referring to the true etymology, but maguro has it’s own character today, 鮪, so nobody really thinks of “true black” when they say the word.

kz

thnx for ur coments,refer the etymology of 鮪.
I think so too,but am interesting in the literally word’means.

Oshiri

See, man, even the Tuna’s BLACK.

Obama, Tiger, you know what I’m sayin’

LOL

gradytripp

Are you trolling, or is this your real personality? I seriously can’t tell.
JackCrow

Now he has it against the colors too…
…it is worse than we originally assumed. LOL

Tbrot

What’s the point of worrying whether the tuna go extinct. Keep eating them and if the supply goes low the price goes up and voila problem solved. Then wait 50-100 years until they become plentiful again. Unless of course there are none left.

LB

They are working on 100% farm-raised tuna, both in the Med and in Japan, the “problem” right now is it is very, very expensive. In the long run it could work out like the technology Brazil has worked out for deep-sea oil wells – it works, but is only economical when other sources run scarce and the price for supply from those sources goes up.

sublight

One huge problem with fish farming is disease. Unlike pigs, cows and chickens (and humans), ocean fish have never been kept in close confinement like this, and so have evolved almost no resistance to infectious diseases (heck, even the species that have spent the last 5,000 years crowded together suffer regular epidemics). This leaves the entire stock very vulnerable to parasites, bacteria, etc.

deanS

From what I’ve read it’s more about the contact from the close confinement. The rubbing against each other and against the pens, then add stress from all that contact and you have regular epidemics and then the overuse of antibiotics. Actually in the case of cow at least, modern corp. farming methods tend to contribute to the overuse of antibiotics(overly close confinement, no free grazing).
Interesting parasites and disease maybe a bigger problem for the wild fish populations. Infected fish escaping and infecting others, or in one possible case juvenile wild salmon must “run a gauntlet” of large fish farms located off-shore near river outlets before making their way to sea thus being severely infected by sea lice.
Farming of fish can be done it appears to depend on the type of fish and the method of farming.

toro

See this comes down to this– basic economics! Would hate to see what we would do once water becomes less plentiful!

Tbrot

Economics is what pretty much everything comes down to nowadays, look at global warming. At least if the tuna become extinct nobody dies. With water being life and death, watch out. No doubt human nature will prevail and we’ll end up killing each other.

toro

What we should be worried about is climate change! Now this silly stuff about food we all eat lol as long as there’s enough of it keep eating
toro

Also the thing thats worrisome is that this sillyness may soon happen also with natural resources like coal, oil, and such…already happening with gas prices! doesn’t look good at all
I mean look how silly we all look just grouching over fishing lol and what we eat!
Roppongi Health

From now on, I will eat less tuna and leave it to others who love them more. There are such good persons out there like me.

toro

Need more good smart people in this world right on Roppongi Health!
But one disagreement:

But the tuna thing hey don’t tell what people can and cannot eat lol. If they want to eat it, let em…if Floridians eat Alligators let em…If Australians eat Kangaroo let em…if Chinese eat dogs let em…got it
freakin out over this stuff makes no sense lmao and just retarted

JackCrow

“Floridians”

this is great!

toro

But you do see my point? how silly this whole tuna thing really is hahaha is so 2 year old! It’s freaking tuna! Tuna’s can be created.

What about shark meat lol
Deer meat
Horse meat
Armadillo
Moose meat
Dog meat—would never eat this sorry no way I have to stop there lol
Kangaroo meat

Floridians, Louisianans do eat gator that’s no joke man
Curious why no one quips about that see that’s my point!
This Tuna thing is just a laughing matter…why this is so big deal anyway? Because this ties economics, culture, jobs…alot involved here dude

http://yokosukaraw.proboards.com/ Hideyoshi Toyotomi

All of this talk about maguro is making me crave some toro.
VGS

Congratulations! Sea Shepherd employees saved their summer jobs!
yogaboy

Well Japan, enjoy your ‘victory’ now but when you have fished all the Tuna and they are no more you will be the one crying into your rice bowl. Stupid idiots.

toro

Hang on try gettin the Chinese to stop eating dogs, same thing so whatever lol

JackCrow

They eat them because of poverty ( and since 500 BC ), not out of commodity you know.

Pointing out wrongs around the world does not make you or anything right, your action do.

fg

I’m glad we can continue importing kuro-maguro, but I’ve got to say we need to rethink our eating habits.
A while back, there weren’t that many casual sushi restaurants around, and sushi was reserved for special occasions for adults who really appreciated the luxury of fresh sea food. Well, at least where I come from it was like that. Not necessarily talking about tuna, but nowadays I see moms with their 3 year olds munching on raw fish for lunch and a lot of it gets dumped in the garbage. I was taught that wasting food is one of the worst things a human could do. Don’t even waste a grain of rice, because it’s the farmer’s soul and a gift from nature. No one teaches that anymore. Itadakimasu had so many meanings. I hope we don’t have to go through a starvation period to re-learn that.

toro

Absolutely never waste! Mottainai concept is terrific keep it up!

level3

I’m a free marketer, but even I have to admit that going totally laissez-faire on this has one glaring flaw.

If supply gets low and prices go up, fishermen will have greater incentive to catch more fish because they’re worth more.
It would be wise to not catch fish and let them repopulate, but some fishermen will put cash today over sustainable livelihood tomorrow. Many more will claim “Why should I stay home and make zero money while the other guy is catching the last $1,000,000 tuna?”

This is not a factory making widgets. When widegts run low, the factory just makes more. This is not true for endangered species. Get numbers low enough, the species needs luck just to survive disease and lack of genetic diversity, let alone being hunted. We can’t really control the supply end, unless we can get fish farming going.

Quotas seem to work for other fisheries (crab, lobster, ahem..whales) Why a total ban? Who decides when to lift the ban? UN bureaucrats informed by environmentalists? The ban would stay in place even if you could walk from New York to London on the backs of tuna and whales.

I’d prefer a private fisheries asociation making this decision, and not some governmental group with no accountability, especially the UN, which puts the “UN” in “UNaccountable”.

http://www.achikule.com apeescape

I have no idea how “private fisheries associations” can enforce sustainable practices. We wouldn’t need Gov. bodies in the first place if it were so.

ICCAT has acknowledged that Total Allowed Catch from mid-90′s to 2007 were seriously underreported, and they are stepping up its efforts to strengthen its policy.

-ICCAT reduced the 2010 total allowable catch to 13,500 metric tons (down from 22,000 metric tons in 2009 and 28,500 metric tons in 2008) and also committed to catch levels for 2011-2013 that have a 60 percent probability of rebuilding the stock to healthy levels within 13 years. They also agreed to reduce fishing capacity. The 2010 total allowable catch isn’t as low as some countries and environmental groups desired but it is finally within the statistical range recommended by scientists.
-ICCAT voted to reduce purse seiners’ fishing season to one month instead of two.
-ICCAT finally held countries accountable for violations through formal identifications, which are intended to help reduce illegal fishing, among other things.
-ICCAT adopted a U.S-sponsored framework for presentation of scientific advice that will aid precautionary management.

In addition, two years ago ICCAT increased the legal minimum size for landing bluefin to 30 kg, which means all fish harvested are sexually mature.

So I think there is a decent chance of a nuanced way out of this instead of an outright ban. The CITES decision would have made Japan just opt out of the ban anyways.

ponta

Tuna defeat’s hypocritical roots
Richard Black | 17:24 UK time, Thursday, 18 March 2010

“The largest bloc supporting the bid was the European Union.

If it is so keen to see vast reductions in tuna catches, it could accomplish this through Iccat. Instead it gets the largest share of the annual tuna catch from the Mediterranean, and as recently as the last Iccat meeting was lobbying hard against the moratorium that its own scientists had recommended.”
toro

Sushi is a major staple it’s like rice, bread same thing. Don’t even waste the time!
Fishing is some people’s actual livelihood think about this too!
Another example seriously-
You think people are going to stop wearing fur coats? Seriously think about it for real? Or Chinese people stopping to eat dogs, ya that’ll never happen so move on peace out people.

This is just worthless nonsense
If people are so concerned about Blue Fin Tuna, then create marine farms that exclusively raise blue fin tuna to be eaten. Let the fish live, eat, breed…so that means more Blue Fin to eat…not so hard folks geezo lol

Just like oysters, they raise them in exclusive zones so that the supply is always there that’s all

JackCrow

If the fur coats were banned, and the law about it passed, you’d see a decline, surely in more civilized countries.

They made the entire US wrap the bottles of liquor in paper bags, and none of the bottle must show or you get arrested, you also get arrested if you drink it in public.

ENTIRE US, and ALCOHOL, now think about what can be passed for mink, if they want, i.e. an environmental law or CDC clause that animals or fur must be inspected by some agency, for a huge amount of money, or import tax is huge, or tax to sell made huge, believe me if there was a will to do it, it could be done.

You will see what can be done on Sunday, one man, total reform.
helical

You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.
Do you even know the meaning of the word “staple food”? The definition of a staple food is usually starchy foods that are high in energy and can be stored for a long time, and form the basis of a traditional diet … like rice, wheat, or potatoes for example.
I’ll give that maybe not everyone knows the starchy part, but do you seriously believe that the dish sushi is a standard part of the everyday diet of the majority of the Japaense people? It’s such a cliche misconception of Japan … you might as well claim all people in Japan also walk around with chonmage topknots, wear kimonos, carry around swords and know karate.

If you’re going to spam the comments here posting a new comment in train-of-thought fashion every time you think of something to say rather than making one concise post, at least get the facts right please.

JackCrow

you forgot cosplay…
toro

You sure seem to seriously know it all about Japan, are you Japanese? Are there even any Japanese on JP to begin with, doesn’t seem like it? And the question remains why is this bluefin situation such a big deal? This is affecting what people eat you know is my point, and it affects many other things on top of that as I’ve said economics, culture, jobs, livelihoods…

Mark

Farming bluefin tuna is very difficult and expensive. Farming fish can be just as destructive as overfishing as smaller fish are taken from the ocean to turn into fish-meal for fish farms. It takes on average 3kg of caught fish to produce 1kg of farmed fish.

Some facts on tuna farming at end of this article:

http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=936&catid=24&subcatid=159

k9

wow! ケツ（oshiri）に火がついたのか？w

JackCrow

後ろ多分彼の.

toro

It’s the problem of telling even attempting to force people what they should and should not eat is what’s wrong here, it’s not that easy and people should
leave this issue alone. The way people eat is nobody else’s problem but theirs and theirs alone.
It’s like saying hey to the Chinese guy telling him to stop eating dogs! yeah whatever man lol
And to complicate it all:
You tie up everything from livelihoods, to culture, to economics, to traditions and such…
Do your homework lol

Fickett

If the world tuna supply is being depleted to point where it might not be able to make a recovery, then your silly statements about “tying up people’s livelihoods” won’t matter. People need to restrict or at least limit the amount being caught in the oceans before there are none left.

toro

Fickett if you mean limiting it and finding a right balance absolutely no doubt on that. If it is overfished and gone too far then that’s not cool which makes sense.
If it’s controlled then the tuna and everyone hopefully won’t have an issue. Thanks Fickett

http://getyourreviews.com Zach

I freakin love bluefin tuna! They better not stop getting it!

マッサージ機

The tuna might think you to be only a suspicious living thing.

It failed to crush the money source of Unification Church though it was voted down. It is good and things are not advanced.
http://www.trueworldgroup.com/html2/home.html
massage machine

The tuna might think you to be only a suspicious living thing.

It failed to crush the money source of Unification Church though it was voted down. It is good and things are not advanced.
http://www.trueworldgroup.com/html2/home.html

japanobserver

This is a difficult decision. While the tuna stocks may be dangerously depleting, perhaps it is a mistake to view the issue as greed vs. environment but rather the repercussion the ban will create. While nations like EU, US, and most western nations are suffering from the economic downturn, the fishing industry, not so much the commercial lines but livelihoods of many regional fisherman/woman of emerging economies are at stake. I don’t think the issue so much was that fishing tuna is bad or so forth, but rather what kind of economic impact it will cause. Japan probably has its own interests such as 80% consumption, but it managed to appeal the points mentioned earlier and won. Regardless, victory is not worth celebrating because one side will lose considerably whether it be the declining tuna population or the economic job loss it will cause to regional nations’ economies.
Dan

Anything sanctioned by the UN is a joke anyway. The US should
cut off all funds to the UN and have nothing more to do with them.
toro

The U.N has nothing to do with bluefin tuna guys, right Dan when did the U.N ever have power?

Bluefin tuna ban proposal rejected

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