the fish hunted in a recent Bermuda Government experiment, could soon be almost wiped out.

The prized bluefin was one of the species sought by the Anna C , the deep-ocean vessel given special permission earlier this year to find new sources of income from local waters.

The giant fish was targeted because it can fetch $350 a pound in Tokyo sushi restaurants.

But the World Wildlife Fund warned yesterday that world demand could soon make it almost extinct.

The WWF says stocks of the bluefin, which weigh up to 1,500 pounds each, have declined 90 percent in 20 years.

The group fears that by the end of the Century the fish could be too rare to be worth fishing.

"This is worse than the great whales or the African elephant,'' said WWF vice-president Mr. Michael Sutton. "If these animals had legs and lungs instead of fins, they would have been listed as endangered long ago.'' The WWF sounded its warning at the start of the annual meeting of the international commission responsible for protecting tuna stocks along the Atlantic coast of New England and Canada.

The 22-country International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas began its meeting in Madrid.

The WWF wants the commission to cut bluefin quotas by 50 percent, instead of the 15 percent cut scheduled to take effect next year.

The group says a 50 percent cut -- which would mean a total catch of about 1,300 tons a year -- would just be sufficient to stabilise the bluefin population. Further cuts would be required to allow stocks to grow.

Many commercial fishermen dispute the need for lower quotas. US commercial fishermen alone catch $30 million worth of Atlantic bluefin each year, and they say studies showing a population decline are flawed.

Governments's Anna C experiment ended after finding fewer tuna than expected.

Instead, it found plenty of swordfish.

Mr. Tom Smith, secretary of the Bermuda Game Fishing Association, said a decline in bluefin numbers could explain why the ship was unsuccessful in finding them.

Or the ship could have been looking in the wrong place, he said.