EU must cut tuna fishing by half to save bluefin: WWF - AFP

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

EU must cut tuna fishing by half to save bluefin: WWF

Wed Mar 28, 8:37 PM ET

GENEVA (AFP) - The environmental group WWF warned on Thursday that bluefin
tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic would collapse within years
unless the European Union cuts its fishing of the species by half.

"There is no compromise to be had, this is a countdown to collapse," Justin
Woolford, head of the WWF's European fisheries campaign, told AFP.

WWF officials were adamant that bluefin tuna extinction could occur within three
years at the current rate of fishing and would have a wider impact on fisheries
and coastal communities, especially in the Mediterranean basin.

The group said the overall 2007 quota of 32,000 tonnes effectively allowed by
the 43-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT) was more than twice as much as scientists had recommended to prevent
extinction.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070329/sc_afp/eufishregulatesectorquotaswwf_070329003714

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