The tuna export ban fishing nations reject

Senior Member Number of posts : 2954 Registration date : 2009-07-11

Way to go, eat em till there gone

Quote :: Fishing nations have won a victory over environmentalists, with a US-backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna overwhelmingly rejected at a UN wildlife meeting.

Japan won over scores of poorer nations with a campaign that played on fears that a ban would devastate their economies. Tokyo also raised doubts that such a radical move was scientifically sound.

In another blow to conservationists, a proposal at the meeting to ban the international sale of polar bear skins failed to pass.

With stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna down 75 per cent due to the rapacious appetites of Japanese sushi lovers, the defeat of the proposal was a stunning setback for the Americans, Europeans and their conservationist allies who had hoped the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, would protect the fish.