 Environmentalists had called for much steeper reductions |
Nations that fish Atlantic bluefin tuna have agreed on reduced quotas as part of a plan to preserve stocks that activists say are critically depleted. Japan and the European Union will both take cuts of more than 20% over the next four years.
A meeting in Tokyo of the group that manages bluefin tuna fishing decided to cut the overall take from 32,000 tonnes this year to 25,500 tonnes in 2010.
Environmentalists had called for much steeper reductions.
The Tokyo meeting hammered out a formula for how 43 countries and regions would split the reduced catch.
The European Union, which has the largest quota, will see its share of the total catch remain almost the same at 57%.
Yuichiro Harada, of the industry body the Organisation for the Promotion of Responsible Tuna Fisheries, welcomed the agreement on the quotas.
"Even if the total reduction was set, each country cannot actually take action without national quotas to reach the goal," he told Agence France-Presse news agency.
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