TOKYO — Japanese fish dealers today welcomed the rejection of a proposed trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna — a prized ingredient of sushi — while urging that existing quotas be more strictly enforced to protect the species from overfishing.
Thursday’s vote at a U.N. meeting in Doha, Qatar, rejecting the ban was front-page news in Japanese newspapers this morning.
Japan consumes about 80 percent of the world’s Atlantic bluefin tuna, and the possibility of a ban had consumers and fish wholesalers worried that prices for the fish — called “hon-maguro” here — would soar or that it might even vanish from menus.
Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks have fallen by 60 percent from 1997 to 2007, and environmentalists argue that a trading ban imposed by the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, would protect the fish.
But the Japanese government and fishing industry say an outright export ban is too drastic a step, and that catch quotas should be more strictly enforced.
“Rather than ban exports, we should make sure to limit the number caught,” said Kazuhiro Takayama, a fish wholesaler at Tokyo’s sprawling Tsukiji fish market. “A lot of people depend on this fish for their livelihoods.”
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