Environmentalists Finally Hook Japan to End the Use of Drift Net Fishing

In an important victory for environmental groups seeking to jump-start international environmental enforcement law, on November 26, the Japanese cabinet approved a moratorium on drift net fishing on the high seas by the end of next year after a compromise achieved with the U.S. no November 25 at the United Nations. In agreeing to comply with a United Nations moratorium on the use of huge fishing nets in the northern Pacific Ocean that scientists say are responsible for widespread destruction of marine life, Japan finally yielded to an issue that environmentalists had been battling for years.