15 Dec 2008

Tuna Commission heralds breakthrough over big eye and yellowfin

12:01 pm on 15 December 2008

A breakthrough has been claimed over an agreement to try to prevent overfishing of Big Eye and Yellowfin tuna in the Central and Western Pacific.

More than 30 nations gathered in South Korea and they agreed a range of measures to reduce the catch.

It will take more than a year to get close to the thirty per cent cut scientists had called for.

But the Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Commission, Andrew Wright, says nevertheless it is a major step forward:

"I think to be able to get a commission such as this, with such a diverse range of interests, who first of all set an objective of achieving a 30% reduction in fishing mortality on the base, which aligns with the advice from the scientific committee that we currently have before us, just getting them to achieve to that objective is a fairly major achievement."