A US environmental group is taking legal action in the United States to try to save the Pacific bluefin tuna from extinction.

The Arizona-based Centre for Biological Diversity says the world’s insatiable appetite for sushi, especially in Japan, has caused stocks to drop by 96 per cent since large-scale fishing began.

It has filed a legal petition calling on the US National Marine Fisheries Service to prohibit fishing for Pacific bluefin.

The group’s lawyer, Catherine Kilduff, told Pacific Beat that saving Pacific bluefin tuna requires drastic action at all levels, starting by protecting them in the feeding grounds off California and Mexico.

“The US alone will not be able to save bluefin tuna because the highest catch goes to Japan,” she said.

“I think the legal action has the potential to mobilise other countries to also reduce their catch significantly of the Pacific bluefin tuna.”

Kilduff says that if the group’s petition is successful, the result will have some influence on Japan.

“Right now, Japan is taking the position that international conventions don’t apply within their waters and so, in order to motivate countries to take action within their waters, we need to lead by example,” she said.

“The decline has become particularly serious recently because of the use of coastal purse seine nets which catch many of the juveniles and don’t allow them to mature.

“The scientists have said the adults that we have now are going to start dying soon, and the juveniles are not able to reach maturity, meaning that they’re not able to produce the next generation of Pacific bluefin tuna because they’re caught too soon.

“So this really is potentially the end of the line for Pacific bluefin tuna – we need action now, we need worldwide action now, and we should be taking responsible action here on the US west coast to reduce our catches.”

Kilduff says that even though the Pacific bluefin population has reached an historic low, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council has failed to take action.

“I think, in part, the reason that the Pacific Fisheries Management Council hasn’t taken action yet is because this is a multinational problem,” she said.

“So it does require all the countries that fish heavily for bluefin tuna to reduce their catch.

“At the same time that’s not an excuse – the United States was a large fisher of Pacific bluefin tuna through the ‘70s and ‘80s, and so at that time Pacific bluefin tuna was over-fished.

“So we do bear some responsibility for the current state of Pacific bluefin tuna, and we haven’t reduced our catch recreationally and commercially as much as we should.”

The Centre for Biological Diversity has a 93 per cent success rate with lawsuits to protect endangered species.

Kilduff says she believes the Pacific Fisheries Management Council will be forced to cut the bluefin tuna catch.

“The science is so clear and the calls for management from the scientists are very urgent that there’s no scientific basis not to end bluefin tuna catch,” she said.