Merit of Japan says to list Pacific bluefin to CITES Appendix II/III
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2016 21:07:52 +0900
Dear all,
[Pacific Islands fail to agree plan to protect tuna]
I have found one idea for Pacific bluefin.tuna.
If Japan propose to list PBF in CITES Appendix II, Taiwan and other nations cannot export PBF to Japan..Because Japan is the biggest consumer of PBT, other nations did not propose this idea. But Japan can do.
The listing is not my ultimate goal, but Japan can convince other Pacific islands nations to make a consensus of a stronger regulation of PBT fisheries in WCPFC. Therefore, Japan cannot say an excuse that consensus failed because Pacific islands disagreed.
Even though CITES does not agree with this listing. I think Japan can list it in CITES appendix III only by Japanese decision.
Therefore, environmental groups can push Japan to make a leadership for consensus building.

I compare two figures for spawning stock biomass of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABT), in 2009 and 2014. The former was used to support listing of it to CITES Appendix I in 2010. This was rejected. Recently ABT is recognized as a success story of stock recovery. But... it did NOT decrease in 2000s.
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2016 14:34:27 +0900
 Stock assessment older than 20 yrs (maybe >maximum age class of ABT) is robust.
but recent stock estimation will be revised, because it is based on a cohort
analysis using catch-at-age data. 

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