Discussion of a long-awaited proposal to ban international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna was cut short today at the largest wildlife trade convention when an immediate vote was pushed through.

Stocks have fallen by about 85% since the industrial fishing era began and this vote had been built up as one of the key decisions to be made at the meeting. It is believed that if fishing activity is not reduced drastically, then the remaining stocks of tuna will be unsustainable and their extinction could become a reality.

“After overwhelming scientific justification and growing political support in past months – with backing from the majority of catch quota holders on both sides of the Atlantic – it is scandalous that governments did not even get the chance to engage in meaningful debate about the international trade ban proposal for Atlantic bluefin tuna,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean and observer at the CITES Conference of the Parties in Doha.

Once the Principality of Monaco had tabled the proposal this afternoon and a number of countries had given brief interventions, Libya called for an immediate vote on the proposal.

The first vote – on an EU amendment that weakened the original Monaco proposal but still endorsed the ban – was defeated by 72 votes to 43.

The vote on the original motion then went down by 68 votes to 20.

EU nations had to abstain on the second vote as delegates did not have the authority from their governments to vote for it.

The EU has to vote as a bloc in these negotiations, and nations with active tuna fleets such as France, Italy and Spain had been unwilling to support an outright, immediate ban.

Japan – the principal bluefin-consuming nation – had made its opposition to the proposal clear before the CITES meeting started. It argues that commercial fisheries should be managed through bodies such as Iccat.

“The regional fisheries management organization in charge of this fishery – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT – has repeatedly failed to sustainably manage this fishery,” said Dr Tudela. “ICCAT has so far failed miserably in this duty so every pressure at the highest level must come to bear to ensure it does what it should.”

WWF will proactively call on restaurants, retailers, chefs and consumers around the world to stop selling, serving, buying and eating this endangered species.

Already a growing body of the global seafood market sector is choosing to avoid Atlantic bluefin tuna to give the exhausted fish stocks a chance of recovery.

CITES votes can be reviewed on the meeting’s final day, but the margin of defeat suggests this one will not be.

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