Pacific Bluefin Tuna Stock En Route to Hitting 2024 Recovery Target

The chances of the Pacific bluefin tuna stock meeting an international recovery target of around 40,000 tons by 2024 was placed at 100 percent.

According to the latest assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean, even if each member of the northern committee expands its catch quota by 10 percent, the chances of making the target remain 100 percent.

If expanded by 20 percent, there would still be a 99 percent probability.

There are concerns over the depletion of the Pacific bluefin tuna, a popular fish for sushi, but the assessment could set the stage for quota expansion discussions.

Japan has been pursuing an expansion of catch quota at meetings of the Northern Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which includes South Korea, the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and China.

But parties like the United States opposed quota expansions as the tuna has not recovered enough.

From its peak of 156,000 tons in 1961, the stock declined to a historically low level of 11,000 tons in 2010.

The stock recovered to an estimated 28,000 tons in 2018.

After the restrictions were introduced in 2015, Japan once exceeded its annual quota through June 2017.