November 19, 2008

Bluefin tuna: Headed for extinction in the Atlantic and Mediterranean

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The international commission charged with saving the once abundant bluefin tuna of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea is meeting this week in Morocco to discuss ways to reverse the decline of the dwindling fish. On the watch of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the bluefin population has plummeted as much as 90 percent due to illegal and chronic over-fishing.

And it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. A European Parliament report on the illegal bluefin trawling by European fishers has been scrubbed clean of any embarrassing data, such as the names of the countries most responsible. That means the people in charge of the fate of the bluefin tuna will have less than complete information on what its current status is.

That means ICCAT might soon be replaced by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) because the Atlantic bluefin tuna will be an officially endangered species.

Credit: istockphoto.com

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