A proposal to increase transparency in the shark trade and research further into the threat posed to sharks by illegal fishing has been rejected at CITES.

China, Japan and Russia helped defeat the U.S.-endorsed proposal at a U.N. wildlife trade meeting on Tuesday that would have boosted conservation efforts for sharks and was expected to gain approval by a committee of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

The opposition to the proposal came despite a report by conservation group Oceana being released just hours before the vote that showed that demand for shark fin soup in Asia is driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.

The report proved to be not enough for the United States, the European Union and other supporters to muster the two-thirds majority needed.

China, Russia, Japan and several developing countries argued that shark populations aren’t suffering and that the proposed measures were not necessary.

Japan insisted that current measures in place are more than adequate, while developing countries such as Libya and Morocco complained that any effort to protect sharks would damage the economies of poor fishing nations and burden them with expensive enforcement requirements.

The Chinese delegation said there was no scientific evidence that the shark’s survival is threatened and CITES was not the right forum to handle the issue.

The Chinese believe that regulation should be left to existing institutions such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and regional bodies.

Conservationists argue that the organisations currently responsible for ensuring that sustainable and conservation-minded practices take place have failed to crackdown on illegal fishing and have proven to be ineffectual in protecting at-risk species.

The arguments and counter-arguments for this proposal bear a striking similarity to those that came up in the brief debates before the proposal to ban international trade in bluefin tuna was rejected. It will be of great concern to conservationists that in both these cases the opposition have won out, and pro-conservation measures have been rejected.

“What we saw today is those parties that disagree with listing commercially fished species on CITES making a stand,” said Glenn Sant, the global marine program leader for the conservation group TRAFFIC. “I do worry that instead of looking at the logic and facts of what some of this material contains, they will simply vote on the grounds that they don’t want to see any movement on conserving marine species.”

Many of the arguments used by China, Japan, Russia and several North African countries to oppose the measure are expected to be recycled by delegates later this week when proposals to tightening regulations on the shark trade are considered. If they go the same way as proposals so far then conservationists will see this CITES as a huge opportunity missed.

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