bertram31.com

Sep 22, 9:35 AM EDT

EU nations fail to agree on bluefin tuna ban

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS (AP) -- A sharply divided European Union failed Tuesday to protect the threatened bluefin tuna, as the bloc's Mediterranean nations refused to back even a temporary a ban on catching the fish prized by sushi aficionados.

The EU's executive commission urged EU governments to agree to a temporary ban until the stocks recovered but Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, France and Italy - with strong fishermen's lobbies at home - insisted on continuing the hunt despite the precarious state of the species.

For environmentalists, the move means a further step toward the bluefin tuna's commercial extinction.

"They are pushing tuna to the point of no return," said Xavier Pastor of the Oceana protection group. "It is deplorable that the EU member states who are mostly responsible for the depletion of bluefin tuna stocks refused to agree to a measure that would have helped to reverse the situation."

The EU Commission had hoped the 27-nation bloc could take a united stand at the next meeting of the ICCAT group of nations managing the global stock. Pushing through a ban on fishing bluefin tuna at the group's Nov. 6-15 meeting in Recife, Brazil, now looks unlikely.

"ICCAT members have to realize that the very future of this iconic stock depends on it," said EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.

Stocks of the threatened bluefin, which have been hunted since Roman times in the Mediterranean, have dwindled for years, with Japan taking some 80 percent of bluefin exports to satisfy demands for the finest raw fish ingredient.

The tuna's uncertain status has driven up prices and prompted fishermen to sidestep stringent quotas to fish illegally for big profits.

Tuna weighing up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) were once found in the Mediterranean, but large fish are now a rarity. Nowadays, fishermen often catch very small tuna before they can reproduce, placing them in cages to be fattened until they are big enough for sale.

The quota for catches was lowered from 28,500 tons to 22,000 this year but scientists still say that is 7,000 tons over what they would advise. A decade ago, 50,000 tons of the fatty, deep-red tuna was hauled in.

Groups like Oceana say illegal fishing has doubled the amount of tuna caught. When the 2007 quota was set at 29,500 tons, Oceana estimates that real catches stood at some 60,000 tons.

Oceana estimates some 45,000 tons of bluefin could be fished sustainably each year if tuna stocks were allowed to recover.

Conservation groups had earlier criticized the EU for not pushing to list the bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

The Europeans refuse to do a f---ing thing on this issue while busting our b--ls over the damned climate change treaties. Here is something concrete that they could have done, but refuse to do because they make a lot of money at it.

The idea of a ban would not have even been necessary if the EU would agree to limit legal fishing quotas that their own scientists have developed and to enforce the laws on illegal fisherman. The US goes far beyond any other f---ing country in the world to rebuild and sustain fisheries but we don't get any credit for it.

Total idiots that can kiss my fat ---. I'd like some press about what a good job we do for the environment on this issue.

No-God Forbid...Americans bad, Europeans good, no? We wasted a lot of good men saving their asses in two wars. Gratitude is not a European trait.

That has to be one of the most moronic statements I've ever read.

pacific marlin wrote:That has to be one of the most moronic statements I've ever read.

The UK has been a strong supporter of the effort to save Bluefin. Since this is the right position on this issue it comes as no surprise to me that the UK is taking the lead on it. They seem to have an uncanny ability to make the right decisions. But France, Italy, Spain, and Greece have demonstrated a short sightedness that is close to unforgivable.

Just my opinion.

if i am not mistaken is that spain that goes out and nets the entire school and kills every last one of them as they show the "mighty" men hauling in the heavy nets----translate to assholes kill the last one!!!

i dont think he was talkin about fishin.

Let em fish to extinction then they can all sit around and wonder what to do next.

Why does it have to take government intervention to make people respect natural resources.

Don't they get it. The more we police ourselves, the less government has an excuse to intrude in our space.

Japan gets around any ban by saying their fishing vessels are research ships.

money

i am hoping they list the bluefin as endangered under CITES and ban international trade for the species---

Pew, Oceana, Greenpeace, PETA all work on the same agenda. If it were up to them there would be no fishing allowed at all, rec or commercial. Be very careful when taking a stand on the side of "enviromentalism (think that might be a Bushism)". If we continue to pit the rec guys against the commercical guys it will end badly for everyone. It needs to be one group one voice.

The bluefin tuna problem is compounded ever more by the different schools of thought. One is that there are 2 seperate bio masses that don't intermingle. However tagging has proven that these masses do intermingle and further that the eastern atlantic group may spawn at an earlier age than the western atlantic group.

I hope that they don't go to endangered becasue that would bring on an entirely different world of pain for the recreational angler. Not being allowed to fish in areas where bluefin might be migrating. It would give the enviro nuts the ability to push for entire closures of the Atlantic seaboard. Can you imagine not being able to tuna fish the Hudson Canyon because there might be a chance you hook an endangered bluefin from May to July. Endangered means no catch and release no nothing. We dodged this bullet with white marlin a few years ago.

I'm not one for stricter regulations but if that's what it takes to forgo an endangered species listing I'll take it.

Well said Bruce....GREED is mans biggest downfall and the greedy man is never blessed with enough. Troy Lafitte La

I am not sure stricter restrictions will work with the international community if this was a local population such as stripe bass we could reasonably moniter the fishing community.

I have no faith that restrictions will be adopted and then enforced internationally. Bluefin have been monitored and restricted for over 20 years with nothing good coming of it.

Striped bass were listed with a "Gamefish" status which made them unsellable in places like NJ. They were able to be caught and retained by rec fisherman though.

The tricky part of the whole thing is getting the species to recover, it won't happen without EU participation. You can call it endangered but if the EU won't follow today's recommendations what's to say they will agree to allow the endangered species listing to fly.

Its a crappy situation with no resolution in site. Undoubtedly the burden of regulation will fall back on the North American fisherman. To bad it wasn't oil we'd have a resolution in no time.

So to answer the question Mike yes I would expect the US fisherman will yet again be more strictly regulated because of EU non-compliance.

I am not sure how that works , but i don't think the usa would list the species endangered without the eu on board----and although the eu is not accepting restrictions--there is a seperate body pushing cites listing and with the current environment has a better chance than before.

just received my october copy of Marlin Magazine--article regarding ICCAT and CITES listing