Participating countries in an international conference on control of bluefin tuna resources in the Northern Pacific on Thursday broadly agreed to halve catches of juvenile bluefin tuna from 2015.
A four-day subcommittee meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission wrapped up in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, with a broad agreement on Japan's proposal of the drastic cut in catches of juvenile bluefine tuna weighing less than 30 kilograms from the 2002-2004 average.
The stricter conservation rule is aimed at recovering maritime resources before their depletion since resource reserves of adult Pacific bluefin tuna, a popular form of sushi, fell to the lowest ever level of about 26,000 metric tons in 2012.
Cutting
