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Bluefin tuna - Source: Reuters -
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The outcome of a drive to ban trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, prized as a delicacy in Japan, is too close to call before UN talks starting on Saturday that will test the world's ability to protect dwindling fish stocks.
Japan and Australia will fight a proposal by Monaco, supported by the United States and European Union, to ban international trade in the Atlantic bluefin tuna to try to halt a plunge in numbers.
The 175-nation meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, from March 13-25, will vote on about 40 proposals for regulating trade in species including sharks, corals, elephants and polar bears.
Bluefin tuna stocks have plunged more than 80% since 1970, according to CITES. Japan imports about 80% of the catch. A single fish can weigh up to 650 kg (1,433 lb) and fetch more than $100,000.
The vote, which requires a two-thirds majority for a ban, is likely to be near the end of the two-week talks.
"Indications are that it's going to be very close", said Richard Thomas, spokesman for the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network.
The EU, the United States and the CITES Secretariat all favour a ban on international trade in the fish, found in the north Atlantic and also in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. Some tuna swim right across the ocean.
Sergi Tudela, tuna expert at the WWF conservation group, said that many other nations might back the ban since it already has the support of the major fishing nations.
Japan, Australia
But Australia and Japan are opposed.
"Australia strongly believes that firm and effective fisheries management ... offers the best means to secure populations of this species of tuna across the globe," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in a statement.
Tokyo says that poor regulation of catches, rather than its purchases, is the main reason for a decline in stocks and has indicated it may not respect any ban. Australia said it favours trade restrictions stopping short of a total ban.
France, Italy and Spain catch the majority of tuna consumed by the global market.
In 2009, a quota of 19,950 tonnes of tuna was set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, but many fish are caught live in nets, transferred to farms and fattened before slaughter.
Under any international CITES ban, trade could still continue within the 27-nation EU.
Others say that tuna is a symbol of a wider decline in world fish stocks. "It's not only bluefin tuna ... it's time to take a look at the world's fisheries," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group in Washington.
She said that the bluefin tuna vote was "the first time that a highly commercial fish species has been proposed to get into Annex One", under which all international trade would be banned. Trade within the EU could continue since it counts as one bloc.
CITES will also consider regulations on hammerhead sharks, the spiny dogfish, crocodiles, antelopes and the African rhino. Hammerhead sharks are caught for their fins, used in soup.
Washington will paradoxically face opposition from conservationists for a plan to ban international trade in polar bears. The main exports are from Canada, comprising about 300 bears a year from 2004-08, often as rugs or trophies.
The WWF, for instance, says that polar bears are under threat from a projected shrinking of Arctic sea ice linked to global warming. It says the real answer is for the world to curb industrial greenhouse gas emissions, not trade.
