Posted for Asher Mullard

The fisheries body responsible for conserving Atlantic tuna has set limits for the 2009 catch 50% higher than its own scientists deem allowable at a meeting in Morocco.

The new International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas quota for Atlantic Bluefin is 22,000 tonnes, despite calls from scientists to reduce quotas below 15,000 tonnes to avoid a crash in the tuna stocks. A plea to ban fishing during the spawning months of May and June was also ignored.

“The decision is a mockery of science and a mockery of the world,” says Sergi Tudela, head of the fisheries programme at the World Wide Fund for Nature (BBC). “Iccat has shown that it doesn’t deserve the mandate to manage this iconic fishery”.

The BBC also reports allegations that the EU threatened developing nations at the meeting with trade penalties unless they backed the EU’s push for an above-15,000 tonne catch.

Atlantic bluefin tuna levels are falling so fast that these fish may soon be listed as a threatened species. As such, authority over catch quotas would fall to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES).

Amidst cries of dismay and disgust from many conservationists about the decision, the Daily Telegraph focuses on the possibility of a “sushi shortage”, with Toshinori Itageki, spokesman for a chain of Sushi restaurants, saying “I expect that the price of tuna will increase by about 20 per cent”.

I wonder what he expects that price to be once all the wild tuna are gone?

More coverage

Tuna campaigners blame EU for unsustainable quota – EUobserver

Tuna commission comes up with “a disgrace, not a decision” – WWF news center

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quota to Be Cut by 20 Percent, Kyodo Says – Bloomberg

Image: fisherman in Sicily land a tuna / Danilo Cedrone – United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization