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Updated Saturday, March 20, 2010 3:58 pm TWN, By Michael Casey, AP



	A fish dealer cuts tuna at his stall inside the wholesale market, yesterday. Japanese fish dealers welcomed the rejection of a proposed trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna while urging that existing quotas be more strictly enforced to protect the species from overfishing. Dealers at the market handle tuna and other fish from across the world including Atlantic bluefin tuna. (Reuters/AP) More Photos (4)

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Tuna export ban rejected

Fishing nations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean complained that any ban would damage their fishing communities and that fears of the stock's collapse were overstated. Libya, in a rambling defense of its position, went so far as to accuse Monaco of lying and trying to mislead delegates before calling for the vote.

Under CITES rules, a country can attempt to bring a proposal back to a vote, but Monaco said it wouldn't.

Japan acknowledged the stocks were in trouble but echoed a growing consensus at the meeting that CITES should have no role in regulating tuna and other marine species. It expressed a willingness to accept lower quotas for bluefin tuna but wanted those to come from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT, which currently regulates the trade.

"Japan is very much concerned about the status of Atlantic bluefin tuna and Japan has been working so hard for many years to ensure recovery," Masanori Miyahara, chief counselor of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, told delegates. "But our position is very simple. Let us do this job in ICCAT, not in CITES. This position is shared by the majority of Asian nations."

Afterward, Miyahara welcomed the decision but admitted the pressure would be on his country and others who depend on the Atlantic bluefin to abide by ICCAT. The organization ruled in November to reduce its quota from 22,000 tons to 13,500 tons

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Comments

March 21, 2010 elumpen@

ICCAT is already known to be beyond useless (hence the mooted ban) so it'll be very interesting to see if they'll now put their long term interests ahead of instant profits; after all, when (not if!) tuna become extinct, they won't be able to blame anyone but themselves. The ridiculous thing is, if they were to impose a strict quota (perhaps by running a license lottery so that only a certain limited number of fishing vessels could receive a license) tuna prices would skyrocket; the industry would make just as much money, with less effort, and tuna stocks might recover. Miyahara should ponder Einstein's remark that "Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe".