COOKING THE CATCH

Spiced Mackerel with Lime and Coriander

Andrew Maxwell

Ten days ago (for your reference I am writing this on the 29th March 2010) the Governments of a number of developed countries had the opportunity to bring bluefin tuna back from the brink of extinction. They failed.

It was at the meeting of the United Nations organisation known as CITES, (Convention for the Trade of Endangered Species) that a hundred and seventy-five countries were discussing the fate of the species, and yet the country who has the largest commercial interest in bluefin tuna was allowed to undermine the vote which would have seen the species protected under Appendix 1. That’s right, one country undermined the entire vote.

CITES has come out in favour of a full ban on bluefin tuna fishing with increasing support from Governments around the world, and although the two week conference was debating a total of forty-two different proposals (including the ivory trade) there were two proposals which were always going to be more contentious – the protection of tuna and sharks.

What happened at the conference was that the Japanese used a procedural trick to limit the discussion on this topic to just ninety minutes, and effective lobbying meant that country after country stood up to demand that bluefin fishing should be controlled by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) rather than being banned outright...

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