Japan Outlines Plan to Preserve South Pacific Marine Life
Japan will temporarily halt its drift-net fishing in the South Pacific by 1992 if steps have not been taken by then to preserve marine life in the region, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Environmentalists and South Pacific nations have criticized Japan and Taiwan for using giant drift nets in the region. The nets sweep as much as 30 miles of ocean, and critics say they kill virtually all fish and marine animals that swim into them.
“In the South Pacific we will stop, at least temporarily, the catching of albacore tuna by an agreed date, with the expectation that when management-control measures for the preservation of marine resources are agreed upon, it will be reopened,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Taizo Watanabe said.
Watanabe did not say when Japan would halt the practice, but another Foreign Ministry official said it would be by 1992.
Kyodo News Service said Japanese and U.S. representatives at the United Nations have agreed on a draft resolution calling for an end to drift-net fishing in the region’s international waters by June 30, 1992, except where protective measures have been taken.
Officials said the decision would not apply to the North Pacific because conservation measures are being taken in that region.
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