Word: bluefin
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...moment, it seemed like the age of the ubiquitous tuna roll were about to end. When both the U.S. and the European Union announced earlier this month that they would support adding the Atlantic bluefin tuna to the United Nation's list of endangered species, it looked as if a majority of countries might agree to prohibit international trade of the fish. But at Thursday's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, member states voted 72 to 43 against such...
...neither is Japan. In part, the Japanese may be protecting their right to whale as a stand-in for a separate issue they actually care about: fishing for bluefin tuna, which is popular in sushi. The Japanese eat an estimated 80% of the world's catch of the species, which many scientists believe is in danger of being fished out of existence. If Japan holds the line on whaling, the argument goes, it would send a signal that limits on bluefin tuna aren't up for debate either...
...that message gets through. At the meeting of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, beginning on March 13 in Doha, the E.U. and U.S. will push for a ban on international trade of the bluefin. Japan has already said it would oppose the ban, but Tokyo faces an uphill battle. "A ban is the only possibility to prevent a total collapse of this species," says Sergei Tudela, Atlantic bluefin tuna expert for the World Wildlife Fund...
...worry that a prohibition of global trade in one of the most valuable species in the ocean would inevitably damage the industry. Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine blasted the announcement, calling it a "reckless decision that will ultimately prove ineffectual and cause disproportionate harm to the U.S. bluefin tuna industry." And many fishermen doubt that the tuna is really threatened with extinction. (Watch TIME's video "The Trouble with Tuna...
...thing to halt the hunting of relatively rare species like the rhino or the elephant. It's another to ban the trade of a major staple of sushi restaurants - especially as a cuisine that was once limited to Japanese workers has become a global favorite. A ban on the bluefin tuna trade would likely raise consumer prices of the fish in the short term, but it may be the only thing that could prevent the tuna population from collapsing altogether. It would also represent a rare occasion when the international community proved willing to sacrifice today to protect the future...