Jan 22, 2007, 9:01 GMT
Tokyo - Five international groups working to conserve tuna fish gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe Monday to open their first joint meeting to discuss measures to sustain tuna stocks.
'The tuna stocks have been overfished across the oceans, and we have to handle this problem with a global point of view,' Japanese Fisheries Agency Director General Toshiro Shirasu was quoted as saying at the opening of the meeting. 'I hope this meeting will help us start the process of cooperation.'
At the conference, which ends on Friday, participants are expected to exchange ideas about monitoring systems, information sharing on illegal vessels and programmes to maintain data on catches for each nation, Jiji Press said.
Some 300 members of fishing industries and governments of 60 countries and regions are attending the Joint Meeting of Tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations.
During the five days, participating organizations are scheduled to report on the current situation of their jurisdictions and draw an action plan for management of tuna population.
Demand for tuna has been rising globally, according to experts.
Bluefin tuna are highly regarded and popular in Japan, most often consumed as sashimi and sushi, while the demand for the fish has been rising in Europe or the United States since the healthy diet boom, they said.
'Despite efforts by some governments ... populations of important species such as bluefin tuna are critically depleted,' the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.
In attendance at the conference are the Western Central Pacific Ocean Fisheries Commission, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.
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