Friday, November 19, 2010

EU flip-flops, supports overfishing of bluefin tuna

After pretending to be the saviors of bluefin tuna, the EU is now the leading voice pushing for overfishing of bluefin tuna. This embarassing change of position happened thanks to a push by Europe's fishing nations.

It's ironic that the EU proposed a ban on trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna through CITES as a way to protect the species, but now the EU refuses to stop overfishing of bluefin tuna. Maybe the real reason is that the trade ban would mostly hurt Japan which trades for the fish, but the fishing controls would hurt the EU because they CATCH a lot of bluefin tuna.

The EU's flip-flop was led by France, Spain, Italy and Malta, according to news reports.

Disappointed by the EU's failure to fish bluefin tuna sustainably, Masanori Miyahara, Chief Counselor of Japan's Fisheries Agency says "Japan will take leadership in the meeting to ensure the recovery of the stock."

So Europe is now taking a back seat to Japan in conserving bluefin tuna in Europe's backyard?! How embarassing for Europe to be rebuked by the great bluefin tuna conservationists from Japan. How will the EU talk their way out of this one?

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