In next weeks meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar EU has decided to support the global trade ban on bluefin tuna. The US has already given its support, but Japan – where most bluefin is eaten – may opt out of CITES controls. Malta was reportedly the only EU member to vote against supporting the ban proposal, which was originally lodged by Monaco last year.
Such a vast support from international community pleased the conservationists. Sergi Tudela, head of WWF’s Mediterranean fisheries campaign, said that with the two largest holders of bluefin tuna fishing quota on either side of the Atlantic – the US and EU – now supporting the trade ban, other countries should follow suit. He added that the EU must now push for widespread support of this proposal during the CITES meeting.
UK Marine and Natural Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies has welcomed the move saying that they have long argued that this threatened species should be given the protection it urgently needs. Last year, scientists reporting to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) said the bluefin’s decline had been so stark that a trade ban was merited.
Initially, those three countries along with Cyprus and Greece had lobbied against a CITES ban, but have now changed their positions. The EU wants exemptions for fishers using traditional methods, without defining what they are. EU support alone will not secure approval for the ban within CITES, where motions need a two-thirds majority to pass. Japanese officials have blamed European governments for the bluefin’s decline, arguing that governments have allocated unfeasibly large quotas to their fleets and turned a blind eye to illegal fishing.
