"Populations of one of the world's most highly desired and valuable fish, Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), have dropped 97 percent since 1960. As the numbers have crashed, market prices have soared. Earlier this year, two Japanese sushi bars paid a record $104,000 for a single, 128-kilogram tuna. For several years now scientists and conservation groups have called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to reduce the amount of catch it allows its 48 member nations to net each year and thereby allow bluefin populations to recover. At a meeting Sunday in Brazil the ICCAT did just that, deciding to lower the annual quotas for Atlantic bluefin tuna to 13,500 metric tons. This continues a downward trend for ICCAT's quotas: the 2009 quota was 22,000 tonnes, and the previous year's came in at 28,000 tonnes. But do these quota reductions go far enough? Several studies presented to ICCAT during its 10-day meeting called for even lower limits. One study said that even a "strictly enforced 8,000-tonne quota" would have only a 50 percent chance of allowing the species to recover—by 2023." - Shannon Jiménez

:( - Rodfather