Captain Watson says the Japanese fleet "refuels illegally".

"They bring a supply vessel in. You're not allowed to do that but they do it anyway and nobody does anything. We don't have that luxury.

"Australia should have a boat down in these areas, especially in the Australian Antarctic Territory, where there seems to be no monitoring of exploitation of anything - whales or fish or anything."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/03/2458480.htm

After chasing the Japanese whaling fleet for 2,000 miles from the extreme Western end of their hunting territory near Commonwealth Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory, to the Eastern side of the Ross Sea, the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin has been forced to cut off the pursuit to return to land for refueling.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/news-090102-1.html

Experts say too many of these majestic fish prized since Greek and Roman times - each one of which can weigh up to 900 kilos - are ending up on the platters of restaurants around the globe.

"Japanese consumption was already a threat to bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. The European craze for sushi bars has added to that," said Roberto Mielgo Bregazzi, a Spanish expert and author of several reports for Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.

"If the Chinese market continues to grow, that will be the end of the stock," he said.

Eating Japanese-style raw fish in rice packages spread to Europe and the United States in the 1990s and quickly grabbed palates there.

China seems to be next, according to Mr Bregazzi, who said there had been a significant increase in tuna consumption there in the past six years.

Even though there are few official figures on Chinese consumption, the trend has also been observed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), a body responsible for managing bluefin tuna fishing.

Japan, however, remains the main consumer of bluefin tuna.

"Around 80 to 85 per cent of bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean is exported to Japan," said Jean-Marc Fromentin, a leading worldwide expert on the subject at the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER).

Sushi consumption took off after World War II, largely using southern bluefish tuna then found in huge numbers off the coast of Australia.

"This stock has now collapsed thanks to over-fishing, and the Japanese turned their attention to the Atlantic bluefin tuna," said Mr Fromentin, adding that despite its name, Atlantic bluefin comes mainly from the Mediterranean.

Prices began to climb. Fishing fleets were modernised in Europe and new fishing fleets created in Turkey and northern Africa. The result - a huge over-capacity in fishing.

Today more than 50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna are caught every year in the Mediterranean. To prevent stocks from collapsing, that figure should be limited to 15,000 tonnes in the short term, according to ICCAT.

"The bluefin tuna industry is in the process of fishing itself to death," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said.

The risk now is that the depletion of tuna will wipe out the fishing sector and cost thousands of jobs in the Mediterranean region.