French government official has released a statement in which it openly announced the support to a ban on global trade in bluefin tuna, a government official said on Wednesday, bowing to environmentalists’ concerns about stocks of the giant fish found mainly in the Mediterranean.
Protection ofbluefin tuna has been proposed by Monaco. The species is much prized by sushi fans in Japan and around the world, by listing it under appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The government official said that France’s position is to support Monaco’s proposal to list bluefin tuna under appendix I of CITES,” said a government official.
It is told that this decision of France supporting the ban could agitate fishermen in the country and other fishing nations as bluefin tuna commands high prices in Japan, where 80 percent of the catch is exported. The European Union has come close to supporting the proposal, but fishing nations Spain, Italy, France, Cyprus, Greece and Malta last September voiced their opposition.
