Milestone decision
March 17, 2010
Conflict is brewing at this year's conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), currently underway in Doha, Qatar.
One of this year's most hotly-disputed topics is a proposal to ban the cross-border trade of bluefin tuna - a fish which is heavily fished in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The European Union has the largest bluefin fishing quotas, but it is Japan that consumes over 75 percent of the global catch, as the fish is highly prized in Japanese sushi dishes.
Last year, Monaco proposed that the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin be listed as an "Appendix 1" endangered species under the CITES convention - a move that would ban international trade on fish caught in those seas. However, catches in the Pacific and elsewhere would still be allowed.
Most EU countries, including France and Italy, have rallied behind the proposal, which requires a two-thirds majority of CITES member states to be approved. After some last-minute squabbling and opposition from Malta and Portugal, the EU says it will support the proposal when the issue is discussed at the conference. The US is also supporting the move.
Japanese opposition
As the largest consumer of bluefin tuna, Japan is an outspoken opponent of a ban. Japanese Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu has said he will do his best to block a ban, and that Japan has China's support.
"China has not announced its stance officially, but is actively lobbying other countries to oppose," Akamatsu told reporters in Tokyo. "There also are countries which are neutral or wavering."
Tokyo argues that bluefin is not facing extinction, although it acknowledges that the current size of catch is probably unsustainable. The solution, it insists, is stricter management of fisheries.
The EU is backing exemptions for fishermen using traditional fishing methods, but it is not clear how these will be defined. Nor is it clear what would be done to compensate major fishing operators, whose industrial scale vessels the EU subsidized with millions of euros only several years ago.
Fishermen are skeptical
And despite the EU's support for a bluefin ban, the issue remains divisive within the bloc.
France only changed its position on a moratorium this year. It has a strong fishing lobby, and not everyone agrees that a ban is necessary. The French fishing village of Sete, in southern France, is a microcosm of Europe's polarized views on the fishing industry.
"We can't let fishing die by calling for a moratorium without any compensation," Raphael Scanapiecco told Deutsche Welle.
Scanapiecco is the elected representative of fishermen in Sete, a port which has profited nicely from the tuna trade. He acknowledges that fishing quotas have been exceeded in the past, but argues that fishermen respect scientific opinion and have already made large sacrifices.
"It's true that the situation has changed - but we need compensation for the sailors...It's not true to say that we're opposed to any controls," he added.
Another French fisherman, Diego Garcia, believes that the proposed CITES ban will be the beginning of the end for the fishing industry.
"That will stop one type of fishing, but then they'll just attack other types of fishing, and the pressure will mean that fishing will be doomed," said Garcia. "It'll be an endless circle. Tuna fishing simply needs to be regulated, that's all," he said.
Garcia also believes that the stock of tuna in the Mediterranean is not as alarmingly low as some claim it to be.
"There are tuna fish out there - people say there aren't, but there are," said Garcia. "They're just further out to sea. But people don't see them."
Environmental groups rally for ban
Various conservation groups claim that bluefin tuna stocks have fallen to around 15 percent of their pre-industrial levels, threatening the species' survival. Thierry Vromet represents the Greens in Sete, where he has watched the situation deteriorate over several years.
He says fishermen's claims that tuna are in plentiful supply are misleading.
"The fishermen say 'a lot of tuna,' but it is small tuna," Vromet said. "The big ones are completely gone."
Beate Jessels - president of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) - hopes that the CITES ban will be pushed through. "
"CITES is not a conservation treaty, but a trade treaty that prevents and prohibits international trade," Jessels said. "But this would be an effective instrument when it comes to reclaiming already-caught fish to stop them from being sold internationally."
However, Vromet believes that it will take more than just a ban to motivate some fishermen to take their boats out of action.
"I think it's better to pay all the fishermen, not only tuna fishermen, to stop for five or ten years and give the fish a chance to reproduce and come back," said Vromet. "Because if we don't do that, maybe in 20 years we won't have anymore fish on our plates."
Author: ew/AFP/Alasdair Sandford
Editor: Nathan Witkop