GREENPEACE HAS condemned the failure of governments to agree any measures to protect endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), at a meeting in Doha, Qatar.
Convention delegates were forced to an early vote on the proposals to list the species on Appendix I, which would give it some protection, when Libya tabled a motion to close the debate. The majority of parties agreed to this, which meant the proposals were voted on immediately. Both the EU’s proposal to include bluefin tuna in Appendix I with amendments and Monaco’s orginal proposal for straight Appendix I listing were defeated, following several days of lobbying by Japan, which takes close to 80 per cent of the catch for sashimi and sushi.
Speaking from the meeting, Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Oliver Knowles said: “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.”
It would mean “business as usual for those whose only interest in the species is short–term profit”, he said, adding that this was an “own goal” by Japan. “By pushing for a few more years of this luxury product, it has put the future of bluefin, and the future of its own supply, at serious risk.
Mr Knowles said the decision taken in Doha would leave the future of the species in the hands of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, “the very organisation responsible for the dire state of bluefin tuna stocks today”.
Meanwhile, 85 per cent of sturgeon – valued for their precious roe – are at risk of extinction, making them the most threatened group of animals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species. The latest update of the list assessed the status of 18 species of sturgeon from all over Europe and Asia, and found that all were threatened.
Nearly two-thirds are listed as “critically endangered” while four species are possibly extinct.
Beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea is listed as critically endangered for the first time.