UN wildlife body rejects bluefin trade ban

Anne Chaon Yahoo News 18 Mar 10;

DOHA (AFP) – Lobbied aggressively by Japan, delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting on Thursday massively rejected a ban on cross-border commerce in Atlantic bluefin tuna, a sushi mainstay.

The controversial proposal was crushed with 68 votes against, 20 in favour and 30 abstentions at a meeting in Doha of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

To pass, the measure needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present.

Industrial-scale harvesting on the high-seas has caused bluefin stocks to plummet by up to 80 percent in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, the two regions which would have been affected by the ban.

Atlantic bluefin tuna: the sushi king The reason is not hard to find: a single 220-kilo (485-pound) fish can fetch 160,000 dollars (120,000 euros) at auction in Japan, which consumes three-quarters of all the bluefin caught in the world, mainly as sushi and sashimi.

At those prices, the incentive to overfish -- and cheat on poorly enforced quotas -- is overwhelming, say experts.

Japan lobbied fiercely in Doha and elsewhere to block the proposal, put forward by Monaco with the backing of the United States and European Union, announcing before the vote the support of China and South Korea.

"I am happy. We are satisfied with the result," said Masonori Miyahara, the head of Japan's delegation and the country's top fisheries official.

But the European Commission warned that rejecting the ban threatened the species with extinction.

"If action is not taken, there is a very serious danger that the bluefin will no longer exist," said the EU's Environmental Commissioner Janez Potoznik in Brussels.

Anticipating a possible defeat at the Doha meeting, Monaco was set to table amendments to its proposal, while Europe -- backed by Norway -- was poised to call for the formation of a working group to hammer out a compromise.

Related article: French tuna fishermen fear for livelihood

But in a procedural move, Libya short-circuited the debate and called for an up-or-down vote on the original proposition.

"It will not be CITES that is the ruin of professional (fisheries), it will be Nature that lays down the sanction, and it will be beyond appeal," was the reaction from Patrick van Klaveren, head of the Monaco delegation.

Meanwhile, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned that another expensive delicacy, caviar, had pushed sturgeon into the most threatened creature on the planet.

"Eighty-five percent of sturgeon, one of the oldest families of fishes in existence, valued around the world for their precious roe, are at risk of extinction, making them the most threatened group of animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species," it said in a report on the conference sidelines.

"Four species are now possibly extinct," the IUCN said. "Beluga sturgeon populations have been decimated," hunted to obtain the world's priciest caviar.

In addition to Caspian Sea species, sturgeon in other areas of Asia and Europe were also found to be either "critically endangered" or "possibly extinct," the report said.

In the debate over bluefin tuna, environmental groups and experts slammed Thursday's vote.

"The abject failure of governments here to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future and sets the species on a pathway to extinction," said Oliver Knowles of Greenpeace International.

Most scientists say bluefin populations in the two zones affected would need at least five years to begin a robust recovery.

"This is very disappointing and very irresponsible," said Sue Lieberman, policy director for the Pew Environment Group in Washington.

She said bluefin's fate was now in the hands of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the inter-governmental group responsible for managing bluefin stocks.

"This is the very body that drove the species to the disastrous state it is in now" by failing to enforce its own quotas."

Van Kaveren recalled that in 1992 a proposed Atlantic bluefin ban was withdrawn from CITES after promises from ICCAT of stricter oversight.

"The result is that the reproductive capacity has dropped from 200,000 to 60,000 in 20 years, tunas are half as small, and illegal fishing has tripled," he said.

Miyahara -- a former ICCAT president -- acknowledged these shortcomings, but said things could improve.

"We have heavy homework with ICCAT now. We made the commitment to ensure the recovery of the stock with specific measures and restrictions," he told AFP.

Last November, ICCAT agreed to cut its catch for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean regions by 40 percent, from 22,000 tonnes in 2009 to 13,500 in 2010.

Bluefin Tuna Trade Ban Fails To Pass
Regan Doherty, PlanetArk 19 Mar 10;

Bluefin Tuna Trade Ban Fails To Pass Photo: Tony Gentile
Freshly-harvested Bluefin tunas are uploaded from a ''tuna farm'', off the Calabrian coast in southern Italy November 20, 2009.
Photo: Tony Gentile

Efforts to protect the Atlantic bluefin tuna suffered a blow on Thursday when dozens of countries voted against a trade ban, drawing condemnation from environmental groups.

At the 175-nation meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, 68 countries, opposed a proposal from Monaco for a trade ban, while 20 governments voted in favor and 30 abstained, the environmental organization WWF said.

Stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna, prized as a delicacy in Japan, have plunged more than 80 percent since 1970, according to CITES. Japan imports about 80 percent of the catch.

A single fish can weigh up to 650 kg (1,433 lb) and fetch more than $100,000. The fish is found in the north Atlantic and also in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico.

"The abject failure of governments here at CITES to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future and sets the species on a pathway to extinction," said Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner Oliver Knowles.

France, Italy and Spain catch most of the tuna consumed by the global market.

In 2009, a quota of 19,950 metric tons of tuna was set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, but many fish are caught live in nets, transferred to farms and fattened before slaughter.

"The market for this fish is just too lucrative and the pressure from fishing interests too great, for enough governments to support a truly sustainable future for the fish," said Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group.

France had said it would support a total ban on global trade in bluefin tuna, but only after an 18-month delay.

The French farm and environment ministries said on Thursday, given the failure to agree on a ban, they would press for tuna to be added to the CITES list of threatened species.

The CITES conference will vote on about 40 proposals for regulating trade in species including sharks, coral, elephants and polar bears.

(Editing by Andrew Dobbie)


Japan, detractors trade barbs on eve of tuna debate
Anne Chaon Yahoo News 17 Mar 10;

DOHA (AFP) – Japan threw down the gauntlet Wednesday ahead of a key debate over bluefin tuna, saying that if the species were truly facing extinction its defenders should seek a halt to all fishing rather than just cross-border commerce.

Monaco, meanwhile, also worked the corridors at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, seeking votes for its proposed trade ban on bluefin caught in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

When the issue comes to a vote next week, the future of a species and a multi-billion-dollar business could hang in the balance.

Japan, which buys three-quarters of the global catch of bluefin, is campaigning fiercely to prevent catches from these two fisheries from falling under CITES' Appendix I, which outlaws all international commerce.

Up to now, this status has been primarily reserved for iconic fauna such as big cats, primates and elephants rather than a mainstream commercial species.

In an interview with AFP, top Japanese negotiator Masanori Miyahara described the proposed ban as unworkable and unfair, and took aim at supporters of the moratorium.

"We are very serious about bluefin tuna," he said.

"If they are really concerned about the future of the bluefin tuna, let's stop the fishing -- that's the best way," Miyahara said.

For Monaco, Appendix I is a lifeline without which the species will slip towards extinction.

"We have gotten to the point where the collapse of stocks in the wild is inevitable," said Patrick Van Klaveren, the principality's top negotiator in Doha.

Scientists agree that bluefin stocks in the Atlantic and Mediterranean have crashed, with populations declining by up to 80 percent from only three or four decades ago.

"Let's leave the species alone for five or 10 years to give it a chance to avoid certain catastrophe," said Van Klaveren.

Miyahara sniped at the United States and the European Union, saying they backed a ban knowing that under CITES rules they could still harvest the species in their domestic waters for consumption at home.

"They are saying Appendix I is okay because their fishermen will continue the fishing and sale for the domestic market," he said. "That is unfair."

Tokyo acknowledges that bluefin are in trouble, but says the solution lies with enforcing existing quotas set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the inter-governmental fishery group responsible for tuna stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.

Japan is pressing for support from neighbours South Korea and China to thwart the two-thirds vote needed from delegates. It has also been campaigning hard with African countries, say sources.

If no agreement is reached on Thursday -- a near certainty -- CITES will form a working group to hash out the issue behind closed doors, and perhaps craft a compromise proposal.

Europe, which remains divided internally, "risks getting into some very complicated discussion," said Laurent Stefanini, head of the French delegation.

Australia has called for an Appendix II listing for Atlantic bluefin, which would allow cross-border trade to continue, but under more stringent monitoring and rules.

Environmental groups retort that this would simply serve as a cover for business as usual, and point out that ICCAT has failed over three decades to enforce its own quotas.

Miyahara insisted Japan could do without the prized delicacy, which sells for up to 170,000 dollars (125,000 euros) a fish in Toyko, and 25 dollars a morsel in high-end restaurants.

"If bluefin doesn't come to the Japanese market, no problem, we can give it up!" he said.

The species only accounts for three percent of the "high quality tuna" consumed in Japan, he added.