Obama Administration Won't Sign On to Measure to Protect Bluefin Tuna

Oct. 14, 2009— -- The Obama administration announced it will not sign on to a proposal to give greater protection for Atlantic bluefin tuna, a move that environmental groups had said was necessary to keep the fish from becoming extinct, but one that was fiercely opposed by U.S. fishermen.

The administration said in a statement that it "strongly" supports the proposal, first introduced by Monaco, but will delay adding the United States as a co-sponsor of the measure until the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) takes further steps.

"ICCAT must take definitive action at its meeting next month for the conservation of Atlantic bluefin tuna. Failure to do so is not an option," said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Atlantic bluefin tuna is the largest of the tuna species, weighing up to several hundred pounds, and a fish that can fetch more than $100,000 in some international markets, most notably Japan. The main populations of the fish are in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast of the United States, and in the Mediterranean. Since the early 1970s, the population of bluefin tuna from the Gulf of Mexico has declined by 82 percent, according to 2008 data from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Environmental groups have been ringing the alarms.