Japan Will Not Comply With Bluefin Ban

According to a Japanese government official, Japan will not comply with a total ban on Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. I can’t say that I’m surprised.

Bluefin tuna is a highly valued fish worth up to $200-$300 per kg but stocks have depleted rapidly. It is particularly sought-after in Japan, where a single fish can fetch as much a $100,000.

“If worse comes to worst, Japan will have no choice but to lodge its reservations,” Senior Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Masahiko Yamada, was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency.

Some 175 countries are due to vote on 40 proposals at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, on March 13-25. The proposals include whether to list bluefin tuna as endangered.

A two-thirds majority is required for it to be accepted and Japan is expected to fight hard against the ban.

France and Italy have also recently reversed their opposition to a ban. The European Union’s executive said last month that Atlantic bluefin tuna should be protected from being pushed to extinction by Japanese sushi lovers.

via Reuters

Is Japan tired of feeling like it’s being pushed around by other nations? Forced to make decisions about its own waters and culture? Are the waters off the coast of Japan the proving grounds for Japan’s rebellion?

What do you think?

14 Comments
March 8, 2010 by Jonathon Marshall

Filed Under: Culture, Fishing, Food, Japan, News, Tuna
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

14 Comments on “Japan Will Not Comply With Bluefin Ban...”

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  • avatar Itismemc
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    Or they will say they comply and then keep millions of pounds for “Research.”

  • avatar Jonathon Marshall
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    Let’s be honest there’s probably no country without blood on it’s hands. I’m not trying to claim Japan is wrong while the rest of the world is a bunch of saints.

    I just wonder if because the sea is so tied to the culture in Japan, that perhaps this is no different than trying to go to another country and change their deep seeded cultural rituals.

  • avatar Taylor Rickett
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    Seems to me that a ban on this sort of thing is only wise. While I understand the position that this is akin asking cultures to change their rituals, this seems far from a ritualistic killing for the sake of tradition. Having watched ‘The Cove,’ on the suggestion of this blog, I must say that Japan’s stubborn nature and seeming ignorance of what it is doing to the fisheries of the world warrants some tough action.

    It is bothersome that Japan has allowed this to happen, but if the governing bodies there are unwilling to concede that they are making trouble and put regulations in place that will be taken seriously, I think they deserve what happens to them.

  • avatar Jonathon Marshall
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    I think most of all The Cove touched on the fact that the Japanese people as a whole do not even know about the whale and dolphin slaughter, and hopefully with the addition of the mercury poisoning facts, the media can bring those things to light.

    I would expect Japan to outlaw the dolphin slaughter before it complies with the Bluefin ban.

  • avatar Taylor Rickett
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    I would agree. What I saw coming to light was the cover up the government had perpetrated and that with that knowledge people wanted things changed. It was great to see that those two public workers pushed to have dolphin removed from schools. That is what this knowledge could do for people in the country.

    I also agree that I could see them banning dolphin slaughter prior to agreeing with the ban on Bluefin. Its sad, though, when the committee is pushing for endangered status for these fish. It truly shows just how much they have been over fished in commercial fisheries.

  • avatar woody
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    Most of the far east countries don’t give 2 shits about it’s animals and conservation anyway…Just look at the Chinese and there so called MEDICINS, endangered Tigers and suchlike that make no fuckin’ difference whatsoever to your health!…Fuckin’ retards, the lot of ‘em.

  • avatar Jonathon Marshall
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    Woody thats a good point, but don’t think those types of ritualistic medicines are isolated to the far east. There are plenty of examples of that in the middle east, africa, and probably still south america.

    That said, the yack loin I picked up from china town really keeps my yang up..

    (That’s a reference to the movie The Golden Child btw)

  • avatar cbiegel
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    As someone who works in fisheries management in the US, I’m not convinced that even the US will ratify this in the end.

    You want to ask someone about where all the Bluefin have gone don’t ask the Japanese who are simply buying product, ask the illegal French (and Spanish to a lesser extent) tuna fleet that the French government pretends isn’t there.

  • avatar Raz
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    For some reason…
    I’m not surprised either.
    hmmm

  • avatar taylorgilbert
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    i understand where the japanese are coming from to an extent, bluefin is delicious and i certainly understand the taking away of a cultural practice but i’m surprised japan hasn’t considered the alternative, if bluefin do go extinct where is the tradition then ? hopefully logic will prevail and the bluefin stocks will be returned

  • avatar Jonathon Marshall
    1 year, 11 months ago #

    the more rare the more money no?

  • avatar Jeff K.
    1 year, 8 months ago #

    Taylorgilbert hit it on the nose.  In their ignorance and arrogance, the Japanese fished the blue fin to extinction in Brazil.  Any environmental or conservation arguments aside, how is it that the Japanese do not get that if blue fin are not managed responsibly, they will have no more blue fin to eat?

  • avatar Jonathon Marshall
    1 year, 8 months ago #

    Well, if there are none left, then I guess the ban’s not an issue anymore. The fact that I can be heavily fined for sportfishing for bluefin, while the commercial fishermen of Japan are not is very infuriating.

  • avatar r.j. seeger
    1 year, 1 month ago #

    So much discussion about the japanese and their appetite for blue fin tuna but what about americas lust for all u can eat sushi now available coast to coast even in omaha, ohio , ozarks ,u name it folks and a korean sushi selling smogasboard is right around the corner anywhere you go in america. dont kid yourself folks many americans are pounding down tons of bluefin,yellowfin,bigeye,albacore , yellowtail, and anything else they can get a slice of on rice .  I know of one japanese owned sushi bar in twenty in my neck of the woods but the consumers are 97% americans while the merchants are chinese and koreans.
    wheres the problem? duh  americas the problem, japan not somuch.

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