Bluefin tuna is being fished into extinction, and scientists say a ban on fishing is necessary to help numbers recover. However, should a ban be put into place at the upcoming CITES meeting, everyone needs to be on board if it is to do any good.
And Japan isn't. According to the country's top fisheries negotiator, Masanori Miyahara, Japan will not join in any agreement to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna under the United Nations treaty on endangered species.
Not surprising considering Japan consumes about 80% of the world's bluefin tuna catch from the Mediterranean, and last month the BBC reported that a single bluefin tuna has been sold for the highest price in the past nine years at a Tokyo fish auction: a 511 pound fish reeled in just over $175,000. So which earns priority – a lot of money now, or having bluefin tuna a few years from now?