Fate of world’s costliest fish, bigeye tuna to be decided soon

Paris: Dozens of nations will convene next week to decide the fate of one of the planet’s most valuable fish: the bigeye tuna, backbone of a billion dollar business that is severely overfished. Scientists shocked many in the industry last month when they warned that unless catch levels are sharply reduced, stocks of the fatty, fastswimming predator could crash within a decade or two. Less iconic than Atlantic bluefin but more valuable as an industry, bigeye — one of several so- called tropical tunas — is prized for sashimi in Japan and canned for supermarket sales worldwide. It is not farmed. An internal report by 40- odd scientists working under the inter- governmental project ( ICCAT) showed that in October the populations have fallen to less than 20 per cent of historic levels.