The breaking news today is that governments at the CITES meeting at Doha have voted AGAINST a trade ban on Atlantic bluefin.
Words cannot express how frustrating this is. The science and scientific backing is incontrovertible. The public will and pressure is immense. The species could be commercially extinct within just a few years. The managing body for the species is an international joke.
Yet here we are. It's business as usual after the proposal by Monaco, and the ‘compromise' proposal by the EU to list Atlantic bluefin on CITES Appendix I have been defeated. A vote was no certainty today, and it was pushed forward by Libya, one of the Mediterranean bluefin fishing nations.
You should be angry about this, you are not being represented, and the interests of a small number of fishing interests are calling the shots on species of international importance.
Seriously, if we can't get it right on a species as unarguably in need of protection as Atlantic bluefin - what chance have we got for the rest of them?
We now need to find other ways to protect Atlantic bluefin, by stopping demand, stopping fishing, and protecting spawning grounds.
Today is a huge setback for Atlantic bluefin, but it's proof - if we needed it - that we need to do more to make the people making decisions make the right decisions.
For Atlantic bluefin, this may have been the last chance.
