Export Ban on Bluefin Tuna Rejected

A working group of the 175th-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has rejected petitions by Monaco and the European Union to list bluefin tuna as an endangered species.

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) commented, "From the outset I have opposed this misguided policy, and I applaud today's decision to reject proposals to list bluefin tuna under Appendix I of CITES. Approval of this listing would have had crippling effects on the U.S. bluefin tuna fishery, and institutionalized a perverse incentive by effectively punishing countries like the U.S. that attempt to impose responsible domestic fisheries management"