Atlantic bluefin tuna inside a transport cage. Greenpeace is calling for closure of the Atlantic and southern bluefin tuna fisheries to allow the endangered stocks to recover to sustainable levels
Last week it helped crush a proposal to ban trade in an endangered species of tuna. The debate over the ban took place in Doha at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Japan, the country with the most to gain from ongoing exploitation of Atlantic Bluefin, sent a 50-strong delegation to the meeting to lobby against a ban, serving the endangered delicacy to guests at a pre-meeting function. Despite the European Union and the United States backing a ban and advice from the CITES secretariat that the species met all the criteria for listing, Japan's lobby won out.
Japan's interest in the issue is clear - the country imports and consumes around 80 per cent of the world's bluefin tuna - but what explanation is there for New Zealand siding with Japan? Having earlier indicated it would be guided by the secretariat's advice, when it came to casting its vote New Zealand said "no" to protection measures for the species.
This was a case of New Zealand protecting its own fishing industry.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs claims New Zealand didn't support the protection proposal as it would have allowed countries to lodge a reservation to the ban and continue fishing. But this is true of every species that comes up for CITES listing and hasn't stopped us from supporting listings in the past. It certainly doesn't mean that a trade ban is ineffective. In 2002, after Norway, Japan and Iceland lodged reservations to the CITES trade ban for whale species, 21 airlines refused to carry whale meat from Norway to Japan. In other words, the system works.
The failure at CITES relegates Atlantic bluefin tuna back to management by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) - an option New Zealand says it prefers. This is the organisation that brought the species to its knees in the first place, described by independent fisheries experts in a 2008 review as an "international disgrace" and a "travesty in fisheries management".
New Zealand's "no" vote to the trade ban is linked to what's happening closer to home. Southern bluefin tuna, cousin to the mighty Atlantic bluefin and fished in New Zealand and Australian waters, is critically endangered. The latest scientific assessment in 2009 showed less than five per cent of the population remains. The scientific committee of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna advised countries only a zero catch would allow the stock to recover to 20 per cent by 2030. Preferring politics to science, countries instead agreed a cosmetic adjustment to catches (from 11,810 to 9,449 tonnes).
Last week in New Zealand, the Ministry of Fisheries effectively signed the death warrant of the southern blue fine tuna when it announced a 27 per cent increase in the quota. This is a critically endangered species - the same classification as kakapo and Maui's dolphin, and is one step short of "extinct in the wild". Countries have reluctantly agreed to show a little restraint, although their scientists tell them it's not enough to stop the stock falling even further, much less to bring it back up to a safe level in the foreseeable future. And New Zealand thinks the best thing we can do is kill more.
This is not the first issue in which the Government has undermined New Zealand's strong conservation policies. It's also supporting a proposal to the International Whaling Commission which would legitimise commercial whaling and allow hunting to continue in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. John Key is quoted as saying commercial whaling "might be acceptable if it was acceptable to others".
If we're not careful, come June, the New Zealand delegates to the International Whaling Commission might be eating whale meat canapés before voting with whaling countries to give a green light to commercial whaling for the first time in decades. We must stop the Government selling our nation's long-standing principles to the highest bidder.