Last year, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposed the paper-based Bluefin Catch Document schemeas so full of holes as to render it virtually useless. The system was riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies and did little to stop the thriving black market in bluefin. Before the ICIJ report, officials had lauded the system as a successful deterrent to illegal trade — a way to track every fish from hook, through fattening farms and to the final buyer.

Bluefin tuna is one of the sea’s most valuable species, a highly migratory fish that can weigh more than 500 kilograms (more than 1,102 pounds) and live 40 years. One large fish can fetch more than $100,000 in Japan, which consumes around 80 percent of the global bluefin market. The fish has been widely hunted in the Mediterranean. As a result, the spawning stock has plummeted by nearly 75 percent over the past five decades.