A large Chinese fishing company declared in a draft document “that it intended to circumvent international conservation limits on tuna – by simply ignoring them” with little fear of discipline for it, says the Guardian. The document was written as China Tuna Industry Group prepared to offer stock to the public for the first time; the offering has been suspended. China Tuna was a major supplier from 2011-13 of premium tuna for the sushi market in Japan.
Says the Guardian, “(T)he firm’s combination of bravado and impenetrable corporate structure offer clues as to why the health of the oceans is in freefall. China has told the world that from 2000 to 2011 it caught 368,000 tons of fish annually in international waters. But as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2012, the European Commission estimates the catch at closer to 4.6m tons or 12 times greater.” The story by Shannon Service was produced in partnership with FERN.
Three environmental groups said the National Marine Fisheries Service would issue a rule today that “dodges quotas intended to prevent overfishing” of tuna by U.S. boats. It would create a separate tuna quota for U.S. Pacific Territories and allow Hawaii-based boats to fill the quota although they do not fish in those waters. Objecting were the Conservation Council of Hawaii, Earthjustice and Center for Biological Diversity.