Members of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) agreed at talks in Japan to raise the quota for large bluefin tuna by 50 percent, the Nikkei business daily and others reported.

The current quota is 7,609 tons per year. For smaller bluefin tuna weighing less than 30 kilograms (66 pounds) the limit was raised 10 percent from 4,725 tons, effective 2025, Jiji Press reported.

The meeting brings together 26 nations and regions to determine fishing policy in the Pacific.

It is mostly made up of smaller Pacific island nations but also includes so-called "distant-water" members such as the European Union as well as China and the United States.

Currently, almost 74 percent or 5,614 tons of the overall quota is allocated to Japan, and almost 85 percent or 4,007 tons of smaller tuna.

Conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which was an observer in the WCPFC meeting in Kushiro, said that stocks of bluefin tuna have increased 10-fold in 12 years.

WWF "expressed willingness to welcome the decision to increase the cap because of a recovery in tuna in the Pacific in recent years and a trend of increasing stocks is being maintained," it said in a statement.

However, Grantly Galland from Pew Charitable Trusts, another observer at the WCPFC, said the latest decision is "a rapid and dramatic reversal of the strict regulations that have been successful"

The change "may put at risk the recent population gains and negatively affect the market," he added.

Pew "is concerned by the substantial increase in allowed catch... particularly because a recent stock assessment showing substantial growth is difficult to confirm and was not independently peer reviewed," he said.

Japan has been seeking a 131-percent increase in the annual quota in the central and western Pacific for large bluefin tuna, and a 30-percent increase in that for smaller fish.

The fish are highly prized in Japan. At this year's annual January 1 auction, a bluefin tuna weighing 238 kilos sold for 114.2 million yen ($789,000 at the time).