France backs bluefin tuna trade ban

France voiced support for an international trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna but urged delaying implementation of the ban by 18 months.

After days of back and forth, French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo and Fisheries Minister Bruno Le Maire said the country would back listing Atlantic bluefin tuna under Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to protect the species from overfishing. Approximately 80% of the French bluefin tuna catch is destined for Japan.

In addition, last week, Italy said it would freeze fishing for bluefin tuna, enabled by financial aid from Brussels. According to the European Commission (EC), fishermen can receive funding from the European Fisheries Fund if they are required to stop fishing for a particular species.

Pressure now turns to Spain, a major tuna-fishing nation, to back the ban.

The European decision to back the Appendix I listing could come at the end of Febraury, when EC president Jose Manuel Barroso ushers in a fresh batch of commissioners. Greece's Maria Damanaki will replace Joe Borg as the EC's fisheries commissioner.

Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) as two stocks (eastern and western). In November, ICCAT slashed the eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna quota to 13,500 tonnes in 2010, compared to 22,000 tonnes in 2009.

The environmental community had called for a far greater quota cut to protect eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks. The World Wildlife Fund highlighted a study presented to ICCAT that showed even an 8,000-tonne annual quota would have only a 50% chance of allowing stocks to recover by 2023.