Word: bluefins
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...army marches on its stomach, then the key item in the kit bags of the Roman legions that conquered southern Europe about 2,000 years ago was dried bluefin tuna. But having survived the demands of the Roman conquest, the species - each of which can weigh as much as 1,500 lbs. and live as long as 40 years - might finally have met its match in the contemporary global appetite for sushi...
...environmentalists and marine scientists are right, the world's remaining stocks of bluefin tuna, 90% of which are in the Mediterranean, could be on the verge of extinction. Says Alain Fonteneau, a marine biologist at France's government-run Institute for Development Research in Montpellier: "If we do nothing, in five years we will fish the last bluefin tuna...
...everyone is ready to heed the warning. A weeklong international meeting to save the species ended in splenetic arguments Monday night, as European officials thwarted a proposal by the U.S. and environmental groups to impose a partial moratorium on bluefin-fishing and to drastically reduce catch quotas...
...Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) had spent days behind closed doors in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, battling over a rescue plan for the species. Several smaller ICCAT members such as Guatemala and Panama had initially backed a proposal supported by the U.S. and environmental groups to halt all bluefin-fishing for nine months of the year and to crack down hard on violators. But European officials persuaded them to adopt instead a reduced quota of 22,000 tons in 2009 and 19,950 tons in 2011. That certainly represents a sharp drop from last year's estimated global sales...
...meeting's been a complete disaster," says Sergi Tudela of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). "The measures that have been adopted will drive the bluefin tuna to collapse." Not so, say European officials, who contend that their quota plan was the best deal possible, in part because it won the backing of Arab countries on the Mediterranean, who perceive ICCAT as controlled by the world's major fishing powers - the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. "You need to have all of those involved to feel ownership over this," says Pierre Amilhat, head of the European Commission's Directorate General...