Overfishing: Oceans Are Dying
This is the Hall of Fame for all around the world Sea Shepherd Conservation Society advocates. This is our tribute for supporting our cause and for defending the Oceans and
| European Commission to ban bluefin tuna trade |
Once the proposal is presented to the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Ministers will have to come forward with an agreement for the next CITES meeting (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) which will take place in Doha, Qatar, in mid-March where it will be decided on whether bluefin tuna should be listed in CITES Appendix I. Nonetheless, Spain has not yet taken a strong stance on this matter and it keeps waiting for the scientific report on this issue which will be unveiled in November. Spain clings to that report as a last resort in order not to relinquish a highly profitable source of income, despite being based on the exploitation of a unique wild species in serious danger of extinction. However, Spain is remaining almost alone with its rejection stance among the 27 Member States. The opposition is even more worrying: the Catalonian Government, represented by conseller of Agriculture and Fisheries, Joaquim Llena, voiced his "much concern" for that decision since it represents a threat to the rich business of tuna fishing of L'Atmetlla de Mar. From Ocean Sentry we hope that the European Commission and European Parliament's common sense will prevail over politician's avarice, who only care about short-term profit and labour problems on the part of small pressure groups like fishermen. If the Conselleria of Agriculture and Fisheries or the Spanish Government had planned a solution for this problem, a policy of redeployment of the sector would have been adopted in time by which fishermen would not have been left in the lurch. We are not dealing with a sudden problem, it is a problem which scientists and environmentalists have been predicting for many years, with the indifference of politicians and fishermen. Feb. 23rd, 2010 
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After many years of unsuccessful and harmful policies of the management of bluefin tuna fishery, it has come to the conclusion that the sole way of protecting bluefin tuna from extinction involves the prohibition of its industrial fishing. So it was corroborated by the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution on this. However, the Commission proposal does not include within that prohibition both non-industrial fishing and trade within the European Union.
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