The European Union failed to pass a ban on the commercial fishing of Bluefin Tuna, a critically endangered species that is commercially relevant to sushi. Although Japan has created a stock of these fish in the Pacific Ocean for their own commercial use, European fishermen have depleted the natural populations in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Atlantic Ocean to Endangered or Critically Endangered levels. The EU sought to ban the commercial fishing of Bluefin Tuna, but was blocked by Cyprus, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain. This move surprised some in the EU, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was one of the loudest voices calling for the ban and had not publicly reversed his position until the vote.
Bluefin Tuna provides a majority of the tuna used for Sushi. According to records from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, the record sale for a single tuna is about $100,000, making this a lucrative catch for fishermen in Japan and the Mediterranean alike. While aquaculturalists have been able to raise Bluefin Tuna in captivity, their enormous diet and late sexual maturity makes them difficult fish to raise sustainably. Today, the fishing industry harvests about 60,000 tons of Bluefin Tuna per year, despite the fact that population managers from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas says that a sustainable quote is closer to about 7,500 tons.
One of the more pervasive theories about the resistance to the Bluefin Tuna ban is the suggestion of mafia involvement. This notion was developed after someone had left a "gift" of white lilies and chrysanthemums for delegates attending the summit on fish conservation — the same flowers that are used at funerals in Italy. Another fish-conservationist pushing the tuna ban received a single bullet in the mail, suggesting to some that the mafia theory has credibility.
Tuna fishing has become one of the most lucrative businesses, and is now being compared to ivory, blood diamonds, and even narcotics in terms of its value. Port Lincoln, Australia, where controversial "tuna ranching" takes place, now has the largest concentration of millionaires in the southern hemisphere. The tuna trade has allowed simple fishermen to achieve baron-like status. According to figures posted from the Daily Mail, a single day's catch of Bluefin Tuna is worth as much as $16 million USD.
Though a Bluefin Tuna ban was instituted in the United States, the Christian Science Monitor found that this may be more lip service than conservation; about 30% of the Atlantic tuna population migrates between the West Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This phenomenon has made it nearly impossible for American fishermen to hit meaningful Bluefin quotas in years. This reverses decades of thinking that Western and Eastern bluefin tuna don't intermingle, and some criticize that international conservation tactics haven't kept up with the latest science. While cooperation from the EU may have been instrumental in steering Bluefin Tuna away from their collision-course with extinction, many speculate that as natural populations dwindle, tuna prices will continue to soar to levels that fishermen and other commercial interests simply can't ignore.
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