THE SOUTHERN BLUEFIN TUNA REGIME: rebuilding co-operation.

• Author: Sato, Yoichiro
• Position: Japan, New Zealand and Australia's fishing policy - Statistical Data Included

Yoichiro Sato discusses the approach of Japan, New Zealand and Australia to an important fishing issue.

Environmental policy stances of Australia and New Zealand from time to time conflict with Japan's policies in such issues as whaling and plutonium shipping. Australia and New Zealand had opposed Japan's request for an increased fishing quota for southern bluefin tuna since 1995 and its experimental fishing programmes since 1998. The three-party Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna was unable effectively to resolve the dispute. Australia and New Zealand imposed a call-port ban on Japanese tuna boats in 1998 and in July of the following year brought the dispute out of the Commission to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal approved an interim injunction to suspend Japan's experimental fishing in August 1999, but in its final arbitration in August 2000 ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the case, thereby voiding the interim decision. Thus, the case was sent back to the Commission. Although the following special meeting of the Commission in mid-November 2000 failed to set a total allowable catch for southern bluefin, the meeting was much more co-operative than had been its predecessors in the previous four years. In April 2001 the three countries finally agreed to launch a joint experimental fishing programme, moving the Commission process out of the five-year long impasse. However, media coverage in New Zealand of this important international issue has lacked objectivity, comprehensive analysis and policy recommendation.

Southern bluefin tuna, like its Atlantic cousin, is valued for its flesh for sashimi (raw cuts). Although numerous countries, including Australia and New Zealand, engage in catching southern bluefin, most of the fish end up in the Japanese market. Like other tuna species, southern bluefin is highly migratory, having no respect for national borders. Its known distribution and migratory patterns stretch from the southern Indian Ocean (south of South Africa) to the South Pacific (east of New Zealand), well beyond Australia and New Zealand's 370-kilometre exclusive economic zones. Therefore, comprehensive management of the southern bluefin stock requires co-operation among Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia (whose fishing ground includes the only known spawning area of the species), and other high-sea fishing countries that target southern bluefin, including Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. The 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention provides a general blueprint for regional fishery regimes on the fishing of highly migratory species.

Australia, Japan, and New Zealand had imposed voluntary quotas on southern bluefin catches by their own nationals since 1985, and the existing agreement was formalised in 1994 to establish the trilateral Commission for the purpose of restoring the size of the southern bluefin stock. Although Japan has been catching the largest tonnage among the three countries, Australia had consistently caught a larger number of fish since the mid-1970s through to the 1980s. Australia's catching of juvenile fish had a disproportionately adverse impact on the southern bluefin stock.(1) South Korea, not a member of the Commission, has caught increasing amounts of southern bluefin in recent years, and this resulted in the combined efforts of the three Commission members to bring that country into the regime. Despite its repeated expression of intention to join the Commission, South Korea has reserved its decision due to its dissatisfaction with the initial quota allocation of 1000 tons offered by the Commission. Taiwan, which catches the largest amount of southern bluefin among the non-Commission countries, expressed its desire to join the Commission as a `state', which would be opposed by the People's Republic of China. Article 13 of the Commission's charter currently limits its membership to states, but Taiwan's inclusion is becoming more likely as the Commission will probably open its membership to `countries and entities', and Taiwan is willing to work `on an equal footing with the Members of the Commission'.

Stock assessment

The major disagreement between Australia and Japan has been in the assessment of stock recovery. The Commission's aim is to restore the southern bluefin stock to the 1980 level by the year 2020. To achieve this aim, the total allowable catch for the three member countries has been kept at 11,750 tonnes since 1989. The other two members have rejected Japan's repeated request for an increased national quota since 1995. The three countries after 1997 failed to agree on new quotas, but have observed their last agreed national quotas (not including the experimental fishing by Japan in 1998 and 1999). The stock assessment was based on such data as catch per unit effort and age composition of the caught fish (catch-at-age).

The Japanese delegates to the Commission have objected to the Australian assessment of the southern bluefin stock on grounds that it assigns a heavy weight to the hypothesis that there are no fish where no fishing data are available and therefore under-estimates the overall stock size. Instead, Japan has claimed that the commercial tuna fleets in...