© 2009 Brian J Skerry, National Geographic Stock, WWF
Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A ban on fishing the bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, stocks of which are at their lowest historical levels, was not approved by the body in charge of managing the fish, announced WWF International, from Recife, Brazil Sunday 15 November.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) agreed only to reduce the allowed quota from 19,500 tonnes to 13,500 tonnes, not enough to help stocks of the fish to recover, according to WWF, which is based in Gland, near Geneva. The ICCAT’s own scientists said at the ICCAT meeting in Recife that a maximum quota of 8,000 tonnes, if strictly enforced, would give the eastern bluefin tuna only a 50 percent chance of recovering.
WWF International has called on the International Convention for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) to impose a ban on catching the bluefin tuna, as well as a ban on trading in it. ICCAT is holding its 21st regular meeting in Recife, Brazil Monday 9 November. It meets to decide on whether to heed its own scientists’ calls to end its members’ fishing of the bluefin tuna, stocks of which are close to collapse in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Monaco proposed 14 October that the bluefin tuna be placed on the CITES list of endangered species banned from international trade. A CITES ban on the trade in ivory in 1989 is credited with saving African elephant populations.
European tuna fleets export most of their catch to Japan, the world’s largest importer of tunafish.
WWF International joined Greenpeace 28 October to call on the organization to heed its scientists’ findings, pleas that have largely gone unheeded in the past. A single bluefin tuna sold for $173,000 in January 2009. In 2007, it is estimated that the tuna catch was 61,000 tonnes, more than twice the quota fixed by ICCAT.
