When the meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) convened yesterday, Malta was the single EU member state still arguing against the inclusion of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the CITES Appendix I listing, which essentially means that the international trade of bluefin tuna will be banned.
The proposal to list bluefin tuna on CITES Appendix I was submitted by the Principality of Monaco in October. Atlantic bluefin tuna is at serious risk of commercial extinction because of decades of unsustainable and illegal fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, driven by demand from Japan’s luxury seafood markets.
The EU, like the USA and a growing list of other countries, is supporting the listing, but Japanese tuna brokers staged a protest on Thursday, ahead of the CITES meeting in Doha, which started yesterday and runs till 25 March.