From an ad in The Economist of 7 June 2008:
Stop Bluefin Tuna Fishing Now or Lose it Forever
Mediterranean bluefin tuna is on the verge of collapse. Every day 10,000 tunas are being caught in the Mediterranean sea, much more than is sustainable. There’s more than the survival of a species at stake too. Unless the EU closes the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery immediately, fishing communities as well as the wider marine ecosystem would be put at risk. WWF is calling on the European Commission to push through the immediate closure of the fishery. Waiting for the season to officially close on June 30 will be too late. If you don’t want overfishing to destroy ocean life, go today to http://www.panda.org/tuna
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To put the above in context, ad appeared in June 7 Economist, and on June 13 this happened:
EU bluefin tuna fishing ban for Mediterranean
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor for The Telegraph, UK
A ban on fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic has been announced by the EU for large industrial vessels after widespread evidence of illegal fishing.
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And here’s the latest:
EU rejects calls to drop planned tuna fishing ban
BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Commission on Tuesday rejected calls from France, Italy and Spain to drop a planned ban on industrial bluefin tuna fishing, defending its decision to close the fishing season early.
Dismissing accusations that its decision was based on faulty figures, the commission said unnamed EU member nations were failing to keep track of catches, running the risk of overfishing.
“The commission therefore cannot seriously be expected to consider their very poorly based request to suspend its well-founded decision,” EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said in a statement.
The commission sparked a wave of protest on Friday from Europe’s leading tuna fishing nations — France, Italy and Spain — by announcing plans to close the season early for big industrial operations in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.
Kanlaon 