If it wasn’t bad enough that Japan said it would refuse to comply with the ban, “forward thinking countries” such as Canada have VOTED AGAINST the ban! What the hell is wrong this planet? Rather than saving an entire species from being fished to extinction we’d rather save a few jobs? I know this is a touchy subject, and many people who visit this blog work in the fishing industry both recreationally and commercially, but clearly you need to have the foresight to realize that if there are no more bluefin tuna left in this world you’re still out of a job. Sure the PEI fishermen talk about conservation, but the bluefin that exist off our coasts are the same bluefin off other countries coasts. I sincerely hope that some kind of resolution is found before it’s too late.
Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea is applauding Thursday’s United Nations wildlife meeting vote rejecting a U.S.-backed proposal to ban bluefin tuna exports.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species made the right decision, said Shea. She added that responsible management practices of Canada’s bluefin fishery helped swing the vote.
Japan and scores of developing nations opposed the ban, which was proposed Feb. 5 by the panel that oversees the convention. It believed the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna — popular in sushi restaurants — has resulted in a drop of more than 80 per cent in stocks since the 19th century.
“We’re very encouraged by the preliminary results because Canada’s position all along has been that that this species should be managed through a regional fish management program, which we have in ICCAT [International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas],” said Shea. “The challenge will be to strengthen ICCAT to ensure that conservation measures are adhered to.”
Canada’s management plan is one of the best in the world, said Shea.
If Canada truly has the best management plan in the world, perhaps it’s time we helped other countries achieve the same level of natural resource management, then everyone would win. The following quote really shows that despite this “best in the world” management system we need more education and information on the actual state of these fisheries, not just the “idea” that they will be here forever. Because they won’t be.
“We’re ecstatic here. We never thought there should have been a ban and the way we fish our tuna here and our conservation measures and the way the fishermen themselves look after the stock, there really was no indication that there should be a ban whatsoever,” said Neil LeClair, P.E.I.’s fisheries minister on Thursday.
via CBC
Utterly shocked at Canada for doing so. We need a new Fisheries Minister.
Since the US and Canada are two of the only countries that have a sustainable BFT fishery it is politically impossible to ban the trade after our fishermen have made the sacrifices that others haven’t. I’m not saying it’s the “right” choice, just giving the real life explanation.
What we really need is for the Atlantic BFT stock for be split into two stocks since the most recent science shows that most of our fish migrate up and down our coast with only some mixing east to west.
Thank you for the input. The point I was making, which may have not been clear, is that if we wouldn’t be considering a ban on BFT if there wasn’t an observable problem. For a fisheries minister to come out and blatantly say “We don’t have any problems here” seems like a rather large contradiction when it’s an international issue. Also the more I read about this law the more it seems this law was more about the TRADE of bluefin, not fishing for them.
There are some huge BFT up here in Nova Scotia. In fact, the world record is from here, but there is absolutely no sportfishing allowed. I find it pretty strange since the number if fish taken by sport-fishermen must be substantially lower then the commercial catches.
It all boils down to one thing. MONEY!