Scientists have warned that southern bluefin tuna stocks close to collapse and so the Australian authority has cut its catch quotas. The cut in quotas follows an international seafood conference in South Korea. The southern bluefin tuna catch is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Australia but marine researchers estimate that stocks are dangerously low.
It is informed that the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna, which represents all the major countries that catch the fish, recently met in South Korea. There was broad agreement at the conference that bluefin fishing quotas had to be cut immediately. It is told that the cut mostly hits Australian fishermen very badly as southern bluefin tuna is Australia’s largest fishing industry and the annual season starts in early December.
With this cut the industry is in crisis. In Sydney, fish retailer, Tony Tsiklas, does not think that tuna stocks are dangerously low. Some of the fishermen have been telling me that you can actually walk on the water, that’s how many there is out there in winter. Moves to reduce quotas are likely also push up prices at Japanese sushi restaurants, which buy almost all of the catch.
