Japanese fishmongers have gathered in protest as a major meeting convenes to consider banning all trade in the succulent bluefin tuna. However, the country is likely to sidestep any ban that is passed.

As government representatives gather in Doha for the conference of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), fears are growing among tuna connoisseurs that the meeting will vote through a bluefin ban.

Europe has thrown its weight behind an international ban, with the EU Presidency confirming on Wednesday that it “supports prohibition of international trade” in the animal.

America has also backed a ban. “The fishery is at risk of collapse. If we don’t take dramatic action, we are afraid it will be too late and we won’t be able to recover the species,” Tom Strickland, US Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, told AP.

Down in Australia, Peter ‘Burning Beds’ Garrett has refused to back the ban. Despite this, some CITES-watchers think momentum is building for a ban.

“While it remains to be seen how things will develop, there is a 50 to 60 percent chance the ban will be adopted,” says Yoshio Kaneko, a former member of the CITES secretariat (Asahi Shimbun).

These suggestions have brought some Japanese people out onto the streets in protest.

“We want to protect Japanese food culture and to prevent tuna from disappearing as a food source,” says Tadao Ban, the head of the Wholesalers Co-operative of Tokyo Fish Market (the Times). “For this reason we are promoting strict resource management — we are even supporting putting a tag on each and every tuna caught.”

Actually, Japan has pledged to file a ‘reservation’ in the event of a ban, a technicality under CITES that will enable it to continue to fish and import the animals (Mainichi Daily News). Any country that really wants to eat tuna can take this route (and then there might be the need for a ‘scientific’ catching programme, a la whales).

So bluefin is unlikely to vanish from menus due to the ban (although with the UK and Europe out of the picture it will likely get more expensive). Whether bluefin will vanish from menus due to extinction is another matter.

Image: photo by Stewart via Flickr under creative commons.