The EU Commission has followed suite after the European Parliament decision to support a trade ban on bluefin tuna, saying that it will now search out Member States to reach a common EU position for the CITES meeting in March.
The conference of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will take place in Doha, Qatar, on 13-25 March.
The first move to include bluefin tuna in the CITES Appendix 1, in effect meaning an international trade ban, was made by Monaco last fall. The Council voted against it, but the Italian government has later come out in favour, as well as France, and the European Parliament voted on February 10 to support a ban.
Last November, meeting in Brazil, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) decided to reduce the annual Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing quota, but fell short of coming up with a ban – a “sell-out”, according to environmental organisations.
At a joint press conference in Brussels, Commissioners Maria Damanaki (Fisheries) and Janez Potocnik (Environment) stressed that overfishing of the bluefin tuna, a stock species for sushi lovers all over the world, is largely driven by international trade, and that they were “deeply concerned” about the poor conservation status of the Atlantic stocks.
The Commissioners proposed, however, that the CITES listing should not take effect immediately, but be delayed until next year, giving ICCAT time to come up with “the latest scientific information available”.
Environmentalists welcomed the Commission’s decision by and large, but criticised the delay until 2011
“The only real choice, if the fishery is to be saved, is to support full implementation of the ban as soon as possible,” said Sergi Tudela from the World Wide Fund for nature (WWF).
Stronger criticism was expressed by Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group. In a press statement she described the Commissions failure to recommend an immediate ban a “non-decision”.