Japanese government offers assistance for juvenile bluefin choke species problems

Juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna are plentiful in Japanese coastal waters, but the country’s fishermen aren’t celebrating as a low total allowable catch (TAC) is forcing them to release target fish to avoid catching too many bluefin, losing out on lucrative mackerel and yellowtail in the process.Juvenile bluefin – defined as bluefin under 30 kilograms – is considered a choke species, or a species with a small quota often caught as bycatch that prevents the efficient utilization of quota for target species. The high presence of juvenile bluefin and its relatively low quota hampers fishing for other species.Some fisheries in the U.S. have tackled the problem of choke species pose by pooling TAC among vessels, but Japanese fishermen typically want to possess as much bluefin quota for themselves as possible until the end of the year when holiday spending on the species can cause prices to rise by as much as 50 percent.Complicating the matter further, set nets are a common and traditional ...