The Japanese government, sushi lovers and seafood traders at Tokyo’s massive Tsukiji fish market yesterday cheered the defeat of a proposed ban on trade in endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The proposal for a ban on trade in hauls from the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic was crushed on Thursday by a UN wildlife meeting in a move described by the European Commission as threatening the survival of the ocean predator.
“It was good,” Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said. “It means the import of bluefin tuna will continue for the time being and I think it’s good that the price of bluefin tuna will not rise further.”
However, he said Japan “should be on alert as we still don’t know what will happen” until the end of the meeting in Doha of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) next week.
A smiling Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said he often enjoys negi-toro, minced fatty tuna mixed with leek.
“It’s good that I will be able to keep eating it,” he said.
Environmental group Greenpeace warned the vote “sets the species on a pathway to extinction” although it is unclear exactly how long the worldwide bluefin population has left at current consumption rates.
Three-quarters of all bluefin caught in the world’s oceans is consumed in Japan, mainly raw as sushi and sashimi. A piece of otoro or fatty underbelly now costs ¥2,000 (US$22) at high-end Tokyo restaurants.
Decades of overfishing have seen stocks crash by more than two-thirds in the Mediterranean, from where giant freezer ships have long headed for Japan.
Fish traders and chefs at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s biggest, were heartened that they will be able to keep importing the species, which arrives deep-frozen by the hundreds for daily pre-dawn auctions.
“It’s really good that the proposal was voted down. Japanese people love tuna and salmon,” said sushi chef Satoshi Suzuki, as he rolled out tuna for the lunchtime crowd at a restaurant on the edge of the market.
He said he recognized Japan should manage marine resources sustainably, but added that ordinary people do not consume the prized fish in large quantities.
“People don’t eat bluefin tuna every day unless they are rich,” he said.
Japan had fought hard to block the trade ban proposal, arguing that the solution lies with enforcing existing quotas set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
Environmentalists say lax enforcement by ICCAT has already driven Atlantic bluefin tuna close to extinction.
Japanese Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said Japan would now exercise “leadership” in managing bluefin resources.
Not everyone in Japan was happy with the vote.
“We’re disappointed by the decision,” said Soyo Takahashi, a fisheries expert at the Japan office of Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network which cooperates with the CITES secretariat.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique