The EU Pushes Bluefin to extinction

The Northern Bluefin tuna has sustained Mediterranean civilization for 5000 years, yet in the 20th century in particular, its numbers collapsed thanks to a growing market for Japanese sushi. Eighty percent of the Atlantic tuna haul has been taken up by the Japanese, with ever increasing prices paid for high quality Bluefin. Recently the Mitsubishi corporation have been stockpiling frozen Bluefin, escalating the prices even further by tightening supply. Apparently they are waiting for commercial tuna stocks to collapse so they can obtain the highest prices. Tuna stocks are monitored and administered by ICCAT, (The international commission for the conservation of tuna), an organisation long recognized as anything but. The Northern Bluefin tuna, close to commercial extinction was never under the protection of CITES, (Convention on International trade in endangered species), as are Tigers or Rhinos.

However, as an extremely large fish, in its heyday, approaching 1000kg or more, Bluefin Tuna urgently demanded conservation attention. Listing under CITES would have made trade in this species restrictive or illegal. The European Union has long been recognised as incapable of enforcing its own legislation to protect this species, and as a community of several states, unanimity in agreeing protection measures for the tuna were always challenging. Legal limits for the amounts of fish caught have been regularly flouted with thousands of extra tonnes of fish being illegally caught and exported.

Countries like Spain, Italy, Greece and France have an interest in commercially harvesting tuna for the Japanese market. This intransigence in EU unity had resulted in the sizes of tuna falling below former records, below breeding size and the last remaining shoals being fished out. Progress did seem possible when France’s president Sarkozy agreed in principal to impose a temporary ban on tuna trading to allow stocks to recover, two months ago. Ten days ago, Monaco’s bid to ban the trade in Bluefin tuna and place the fish on Appendix 1 of CITES was apparently widely supported by the EU. This would have effectively removed the control of fishing of the Bluefin from ICCAT (an organisation incapable of it) to CITES. A ban would have theoretically become binding at the upcoming ICCAT meeting Nov. 6-15, in Recife, Brazil.

However, with the EU’s vote 21 September 2009, Monaco’s bid to place the Bluefin on CITES Appendix 1 has been overturned given that France has made a dramatic U turn in its expected support for the ban. Of 27 members of the EU, Britain, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Austria backed Monaco’s bid to protect the Bluefin. Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus, the Mediterranean block opposed it, and with France’s assistance, a 75% majority vote was not achieved. The EU’s support that would have been crucial for Bluefin CITES listing has not been forthcoming. An even temporary ban on Bluefin tuna fishing has been scuppered.

Japan, the fishing lobby and commercial interests are thought to have mounted a vigorous rearguard action, especially in persuading France to back off from supporting the Bluefin Tuna. Conservation bodies including Oceana, Greenpeace and WWF have been angered and dismayed by the vote, given that a historic possibility of saving the Bluefin at a commercial scale has been overturned (see Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/oceans/Bluefin-eating-surrender-monkeys-20090921).

A decade ago 50,000 tonnes of this fish was hauled out of the Mediterranean region with fish weighing up to 500kg. Today, the fish are so small that they are caged and fattened, not giving them the opportunity of breeding. The fish are typically electrocuted to death before being shipped off to Japan (this maintains the carcase in a more pristine state). The current legal catch of 22,000 tonnes has been widely disregarded by uncontrolled illegal fishing. Oceana has estimated that banning fishing could have raised the quota to 45,00 tonnes.

The EU backing down from protecting the Bluefin though shocking to environmentalists including lobbying by celebrities and Hollywood stars is a grim illustration of a union of countries that has rarely been capable of taking unanimous decisions for the wider interests of fish stocks. Indeed, EU fish stocks are amongst the most mismanaged fisheries in the world for several decades due to ridiculous quota systems that ensures that thousands of tonnes of valuable fish are discarded back into the sea, dead of dying. Journalist Charles Clover highlighted the plight of the Bluefin and EU mismanagement of this once abundant fish in the film End of the Line (endoftheline.com). Given the EU’s historical incapability to treat the Bluefin as anything other than a commodity to be hunted to extinction, the latest decision is hardly surprising and makes the commercial of this magnificent fish more likely than ever.

Currently, the safest Bluefin tuna are those in Atlantic waters controlled by the USA. The Mediterranean stock appears doomed. The Southern Bluefin tuna also remains critically endangered.

Whereas the status of these fish is really no different from Tigers, Rhinos or other magnificient big game animals threatened with extinction, politicians seem bowled over by commercial pressures and international rivalries, sealing the fate of the Bluefin, which remains the most unloved and unprotected of the world’s top predators facing extinction. The lack of support for this fish from the EU is a damning indictment of a highly regarded, apparently civilized body of countries wilfully taking action despite the best Science based advice, to condemn the Bluefin tuna to commercial extinction. With its demise, other tuna species such as the Bigeye and Yellowfin (also facing collapse) are likely to be increasingly targeted to satisfy the voracious demand for sushi and sashimi.