Tuna fishing ban in the Pacific pushed by island nations

They may be going underwater slowly, but Pacific island nations aren't going down without a fight. This week they got together and set up a ban on purse seining for tuna, a major, major, MAJOR statement move about overfishing in the world's oceans.

Japan, I hope you notice this.

Marine biologists say the development is a major step forward for efforts to halt the global decline of bigeye, yellowfin, skipjack and other tropical tuna species. In October this year, Britain turned the entire Exclusive Economic Zone around the Chagos Islands, in the centre of the Indian Ocean, into a no-take zone, making it the first area rich in tuna that has been closed to fishing. At 3.2 million square kilometres, the Eastern High Seas is six times larger.

"These are the most far-reaching ocean-conservation measures ever," says Daniel Pauly, a leading fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. "For the first time since man has been fishing out the open oceans, we're going to see a reversal of the decline of pelagic species in two big areas."

Islands champion tuna ban