Tuna, halibut and eels are as happy as this stingray following this week's developments © Clicksy
It’s been a busy week, for the fish.
There was the news that the UK’s biggest seafood suppliers have decided to stop supplying European eel and North Atlantic halibut. Both of these species are already listed on the IUCN’s redlist, but the fact that suppliers and retailers are increasingly delisting such species is testament to ongoing campaigning by the likes of Greenpeace, the Marine Conservation Society, and Fish2Fork – making sure that they know that serving up endangered fish species is simply no longer acceptable.
Then the European Parliament voted to support the listing of Atlantic bluefin on CITES, effectively backing a full international trade ban on the species. The growing support for this trade ban makes it look increasingly likely that the EU will put its full weight behind the proposal, and it has an increasing chance of delivering the protection Atlantic bluefin so desperately needs at the CITES meeting in Doha.
This morning we also received a rather detailed letter from the UK’s fisheries minister, Huw Irranca-Davies. Huw was specifically responding to my blog questioning why the UK had gone quiet on the issue of bluefin, and to the thousands of Greenpeace supporters who wrote to him to demand that he backed a full trade ban on the species. The good news of course is that the UK has now publicy reaffirmed its unconditional support for the CITES Appendix 1 listing of Atlantic bluefin.
In it he explicitly acknowledges that the fisheries management body responsible for Atlantic bluefin has not taken effective measure to protect the species, so:
“ … it remains our view that the CITES Appendix I listing is not only fully justified but also necessary.”
He goes on to assure us that “… the UK will work very hard to see that the proposal gets adopted in Doha.”
It’s not often we at Greenpeace get to congratulate a minister. So, well done Huw!
… and thanks to you, too, if you helped make this happen by writing to the minister.
You can read Huw’s letter in its entirety here.
