The government’s Fisheries Agency may ask importers to refrain from buying Pacific bluefin tuna from Mexico as much as possible to nudge that country to take steps against overfishing, although any such the request will be nonbinding.
The request, which sources revealed Saturday, would represent a rare move for Japan, the world’s largest consumer of tuna, in seeking to effectively manage the finite resource. It comes just as countries are convening a meeting from Monday in California of a regional tuna commission to discuss bluefin tuna fishing in the eastern Pacific.
At the meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, participating countries are set to discuss Tokyo’s proposal to halve catches in the eastern Pacific of juvenile bluefin tuna weighing less than 30 kg.
