Pacific's yellow fin and big eye tuna stocks at critical point: Conference

A regional fisheries conference in New Zealand has heard that tuna stocks in the Pacific are at a critical point with two important species at risk of being decimated. The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries committee is holding its annual meeting in Wellington.

Left: The yellow fin tuna; Right: The big eye tuna

New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton says the highly migratory fish stocks of the western and central Pacific are at risk with big-eye and yellow-fin tuna being fished unsustainably.

Environmental organisation Greenpeace says fleets from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the United States and the European Union take 90 percent of the Pacific tuna.

It says the fishing effort in the Pacific needs to be halved if big-eye and yellow-fin tuna catches are to remain sustainable.

Source: Radio Australia