WWF UK has welcomed the decision to suspend the international trade of Bluefin Tuna and is urging the EU governments to follow suit. Bluefin tuna has been massively overfished for many years, and suspending the trade will allow the fishes stock time to recover. The European Commission agreed on a proposal to European Union Member States to temporarily ban all international trade of bluefin tuna, with EU countries now deciding whether to accept or reject today’s proposal.
Director of WWF’s European Policy Office in Brussels, Tony Long, said –
Commissioners Dimas and Borg have made the right choice leading the EU to heed urgent scientific advice that Atlantic bluefin tuna is dangerously close to collapse and needs a break. Some EU Member States have already joined the call to temporarily ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin – and WWF now urges other countries to follow the European Commission’s lead and back the trade suspension.
WWF hopes that through this temporary ban, Bluefin Tuna will once again become a sustainable and thriving species of fish, rather than be currently under threat of collapse from commercial exploitation.
