Monaco seeks global bluefin tuna trade ban

According to a draft proposal released on the website of CITES, the UN agency against illegal wildlife trade, Monaco wants the species to be entered straightaway on Appendix I, the agency's top grade of protection.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the only global body with the authority to limit or ban global trade in animal and plant species.

Appendix I lists species threatened with extinction and for which all international trade is prohibited except for non-commercial purposes.

"At this stage we believe that the time for CITES to intervene is long overdue," said Monaco in its submission.

"We are further convinced that the status of the species had passed the point where listing it on Appendix II of that convention will be sufficient.

"Regrettably, an Appendix I listing of all stocks, this closing international commercial trade in the species, is what is required at this stage," the Mediterranean principality added.

CITES' Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily currently threatened with extinction but could become so unless trade is closely controlled.

Bluefin tuna has no form of protection under CITES at the moment.

Attempts by other bodies, including the European Union, to limit fishing have met strong opposition, notably in France and Italy.

Monaco argued that tuna spawning stock in the Mediterranean has declined by 74.2% over 1957 to 2007, of which 60.9% happened in the last decade.

Meanwhile, tuna stock in the west Atlantic has plunged 82.4% between 1970 to 2007.

Source: AFP

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