Initiated by Monaco last year, a proposal to ban the global trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna in a bid to protect the species from extinction has so far been supported by the EU and the US, along with environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Representatives of 175 countries are due to vote on the proposal during the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) triennial meeting in Doha, Qatar, between March 13 and 25. Turkey declared a negative opinion ahead of the meeting, stating that “a ban on international trade is unlikely to assure protection while bluefin tuna fishing continues.”
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Nedim Ambar, manager of Aqua Group, one of six firms that export bluefin tuna in Turkey, argued that the initiative aims at “protecting European fishers, rather the tuna fish.” European countries will not be affected by the ban since it will consume bluefin tuna that is caught inside the union, he explained. The EU consumes most of its bluefin tuna production, Ambar said, hence they do not aim to export to Japan, the world’s largest bluefin consumer.
Currently a total of 10,000 tons of bluefin tuna is consumed in the EU, while its production amounts to some 6,000 tons. If the proposal is approved, apart from Turkey, countries such as Croatia, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria are also expected to be adversely affected by the ban. Turkey earns some $150 million from its bluefin tuna trade each year.
