Japan to limit bluefin tuna fishing

Japan, the world's largest consumer of tuna, plans to limit bluefin tuna fishing in its own waters in a bid to help protect the species from extinction, a report said Sunday। The country's fisheries agency will set up a special council by the end of next month to draft a plan for the protection of young bluefin tuna, the Nikkei business daily reported, quoting agency officials. The plan is to be completed by year's end.Japan has never set any restrictions on bluefin tuna fishing in its waters, although an international commission reached a deal to slash the hunt in the Mediterranean and the east Atlantic by 20 percent by 2010."If we continue catching young bluefin tuna, resources will be depleted and we may cut our own throat in the end," an agency official was quoted by the daily as saying.Environmentalists have warned that tuna face eventual extinction if fishing continues at current rates to feed a worldwide fad for Japanese food such as sushi.But tuna fishing is an increasingly lucrative industry, particularly for developing economies that export to Japan, which consumes a quarter of the world's tuna.Greenpeace, quoting some experts, have warned that only catches below 15,000 tonnes would allow the tuna population to start recovering.Despite that, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna approved last November a quota of 29,500 tonnes for 2007, the environmental watchdog group said. by Gregory