After strong complaint by the Pew Environment Group the Obama administration threw its support behind shutting down bluefin exports to Japan. Thismove is said to win applause from environmental groups — and very likely opposition from some fishing advocates who say a bluefin ban will penalize American fishermen for the overfishing of Mediterranean nations.
The last date has passed for nations that are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES treaty, to propose new actions for the annual treaty conference to be held in March 2010. Experts believe that when by mid-day the United States had not taken up Pew’s urgings to co-sponsor the measure, the group’s director Joshua Reichert put out a statement lamenting a “lost opportunity” to reverse bluefin declines.
Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced the United States would join Monaco. That could give American negotiators and big stick to carry at next month’s meeting in Brazil on Atlantic tunas, when 2010 catch limits will be set. He told that a sustained lack of science-based management for the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean stock of bluefin tuna, and concerns about slow recovery in the west, have brought us to this point.
