Pacific Bluefin Tuna Population Declines at Alarming Rates

The population of the Pacific bluefin tuna has declined by nearly 97 percent, according to the latest scientific assessment released by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean.

As a result of overfishing, there has been a catastrophic decline in the population of the Pacific bluefin tuna, a valuable species which has strong demand in countries like Japan, for use in the popular Japanese dish sushi.

More concerning is the fact that 90 percent of the fish caught are juveniles, according to the assessment.

Nine out of 10 species of bluefin tuna were very young, which mean that they could not reproduce. They might likely be the last generation of their species, according to a report by the British national daily newspaper Guardian.

The report has come just days after a Japanese bidder bought a single Pacific bluefin tuna, weighing 489-lbs, for a record price of $1.7 million at Tokyo's famous Tsukiji Fish Market.

More than 80 percent of the global bluefin tuna caught is shipped to Japan for consumption. It commands high prices which attract the fishermen.

The Pacific bluefin tuna migrates between the eastern and western Pacific Ocean. Catch limits on the number of fish to be caught were adopted for the first time in the eastern Pacific last year. However, no such quota was placed in the western Pacific, reports Livescience.

This will not help much in reducing fishing, as the fish moves to both the eastern and western Pacific, said Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for the Pew Environment Group.

Nickson urged for better measures to preserve and help in the recovery of the bluefin tunas. She insisted on calling for a temporary halt on fishing.

"We think the most responsible thing to do is to suspend the fishery until we can put measures in place that will ensure that the population decline is reversed," Nickson told LiveScience.