Greenpeace Japan has released its first seafood ranking guide “red listing” 15 fish species that should be removed from Japanese shelves, including five different species of tuna.
Japan consumes 25% of the world’s tuna, including more than three-quarters of the bluefin tuna.
With 80% of the world’s fish populations fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, Greenpeace said it is urging Japanese consumers, retailers and restaurants to remove red-listed fish from their shopping lists, plates, shelves and freezers.
Japan, with the biggest per capita seafood consumption, will host this year’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “where leaders must set aside more ocean areas as off-limits to fishing and industrial activities from which oceans can be restored to health,” the NGO said in a statement.
“The ongoing destructive fishing for Pacific bluefin tuna, which begins this month, is only one example of how fishing industries and governments are failing our oceans,” said Wakao Hanaoka, Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner. “Overfishing has driven bluefin fisheries to the brink of collapse in all the world’s oceans, and other tuna species will follow if urgent action to defend our oceans and protect the species is not taken immediately. It is up to supermarkets, restaurant chains and consumers to take action where politicians have not, only then will future generations have healthy oceans.”
Pacific bluefin tuna is high on the Greenpeace Japan ‘red list’, a large tuna species that is fished using purse-seining vessels in the Sea of Japan.
“Its meat is highly prized and has lead to massive overfishing, for several years 90% of the whole bluefin catch has been of juvenile fish less than one year old, taking this species to the verge of collapse,” said the Greenpeace statement.
Greenpeace is campaigning to establish a global network of marine reserves covering 40% of the world’s oceans: areas off-limits to fishing and other industrial activities.
“It is high time for the establishment of a global network of marine reserves, including areas for the protection of the world’s tuna species. As the host of the CBD meeting, Japan has the opportunity to show leadership on oceans protection,” said Hanaoka.
Greenpeace’s priority areas for ocean protection include bluefin tuna spawning grounds in the Sea of Japan, the Mediterranean Sea, and areas of the Pacific Ocean.
