AUSTRALIA: Japan accused of under reporting tuna catch
Updated
Australia's claim that Japan has massively under-reported its catch of tuna over decades has disrupted conservation negotiations. Japan has hit back, claiming that there's also evidence of under-reporting by Australia and Indonesia.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
DOBELL: Australia found a way to prove suspicions that Japan was breaking its word in fishing for Southern bluefin tuna.
In 2005, Australia conducted what was called a forensic audit of sales of the tuna on the Japanese market, and compared those reported sales with the tonnages Japan claimed to have taken at sea.
That comparison of what went to market against what was claimed to have been caught at sea - over two decades - showed what Australia calls systematic under-reporting of the catch.
The comparison showed Japan was selling an amount of tuna sushi which was twice the amount it claimed to have caught.
The estimate that Australia put to the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna at its meeting last year was that Japan had caught nearly 180-thousand tonnes of tuna more than reported. That illegal catch would have been worth in the order of six billion US dollars.
The minutes of this year's Commission meeting show Australia's findings about the significant gap between the reported take and sales, based on market data from the Tokyo.
COMMISSION MINUTES: "The amount of southern bluefin tuna available on the Japanese market greatly exceeds the reported Japanese catch as presented in Japan's national report. The report suggests that in the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 that the amount of Southern Bluefin Tuna available on the Japanese market was of the order of 8,696 to
11,260 tonnes higher per year than expected based on the reported Japanese catch."
DOBELL: It obviously as implications for conservation, if Japan had been taking double the catch that it reports. The Australian study raises larger questions about whether any of Japan fisheries reporting can be believed.
If the Japanese data on Southern Bluefin tuna are essentially "fictional" and that word "fictional" is one that has been used in Canberra, then can any other Japanese figures be believed. Australia called on Japan to conduct an inquiry, in these terms.
COMMISSION MINUTES: "The investigation would address arrange of uncertainties that Australia has identified in relation to the estimates of longline catch and this may help to explain, in part, the very large discrepancies
between reported catch and the weight of Southern Bluefin Tuna in the Japanese markets."
DOBELL: Japan is extremely sensitive to the claim that it has been caught lying over a long period.
The Japanese delegation in Canberra replied that there was no agreement or consensus on estimates of its past under-reporting.
While not conceding past wrong-doing, Tokyo says that since April, last year, it has introduced a stricter management system for Southern Bluefin tuna. Japan has cut its yearly quota for the tuna from 6000 to three thousand tonnes. That report is being accepted because that's the amount of Bluefin tuna being sold on the Tokyo market.
Japan says it's not the only nation under cloud, claiming that there discrepancy issues to be confronted in the reporting by Indonesia and Australia.
The standoff meant the Commission got little movement on efforts to police the trade through such measures as satellite tracking of fishing boats and independent on-board inspectors.
