Clock ticking to save Mediterranean bluefin tuna

Clock ticking as companies rally to save Mediterranean bluefin tuna - WWF

THE ISSUE: In less than a month, the bluefin tuna fishing season in the Mediterranean will begin. In recent years, high-tech fishing fleets have hunted down, often illegally, ever-declining numbers of these ocean giants. Last November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas set quotas for the 2007 fishing season at levels more than twice that recommended by its own scientists. As a consequence, it's likely that the magnificent bluefin tuna, the fish behind the finest sushi in the world, will disappear from the Mediterranean forever.

THE ACTION: WWF, together with more than 10 other companies and organizations, has committed to healthy oceans and signed an open letter appealing to the European Commission and Member States to act before it's too late for bluefin. This group has agreed to do all it can to promote, buy and sell seafood from sustainable sources. But it also recognises that a sustainable seafood market depends on responsible fishing practices and good fisheries management. For this, we rely on governments and regulators.

THE DEMAND: WWF and supporting companies and organizations call on the European Commission and Member States to set aside half of the fishing quota for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean this year, thereby bringing fishing levels in line with scientific advice, and to put in place a sensible management plan to bring bluefin tuna and the fishery back from the brink. Not to do so would be amoral and irresponsible, and an admission that we are incapable of managing a common resource of value to all. View the open letter from concerned companies and organizations: here

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