Disagreement Over Banning Bluefin Tuna Export Ban

Proposed bill by Monaco, backed by the United States, to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna was rejected.
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Disagreement Over Banning Bluefin Tuna Export Ban
3/19/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/INTERNATIONAL.jpg" alt="Japanese fishmongers raise their fists in the air as they hold a rally to protest against a global trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on March 11. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Japanese fishmongers raise their fists in the air as they hold a rally to protest against a global trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on March 11. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1821909"/></a>
Japanese fishmongers raise their fists in the air as they hold a rally to protest against a global trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on March 11. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
A proposed bill by Monaco, backed by the United States, to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna was rejected during the meeting of a U.N. body on Thursday. Japan led the opposition against the bill.

At the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Monaco delegates argued that “industrial fishing” has made this species suffer an over 75 percent drop in population over the last decades.

The statement was rebuked by the head of Japan’s delegation, Masanori Miyahara, saying that CITES should have no role in regulating tuna or other marine species. “Let us do this job in ICCAT [International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna] not in CITES,” Miyahara said, according to AP. Japan imports 80 percent of the fish for high-priced sushi and sashimi.