Greenpeace welcomes European Commission support for international bluefin tuna trade ban

The Commission is calling for bluefin tuna to be classified as an endangered species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This classification would effectively suspend the international trade in bluefin tuna until the species is no longer threatened with extinction.

“Bluefin tuna populations have fallen to critically low levels. Anyone who is opposed to the proposed trade ban is clearly putting short-term commercial interests above the survival of the species," said Saskia Richartz, EU oceans policy director at Greenpeace.

The proposal to list bluefin tuna as an endangered species was originally tabled by Monaco in July at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the inter-governmental body responsible for the conservation of tuna, in response to critically low and overfished stocks. French President Nicolas Sarkozy led calls supporting the proposal by Monaco. Several other EU countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Austria, have also backed the move.[1]

“Bluefin tuna has become endangered because of disgraceful fisheries management in the EU. The suspension of trade is a last resort and it merely buys the EU time to put its fisheries management in order,” said Richartz.