Aggressive lobbying from Asian nations led by Japan killed all efforts to protect marine species at a U.N. meeting, leaving environmentalists fuming today that efforts to conserve bluefin tuna and sharks were undermined by commercial interests, according to AP. The bid to regulate the trade was also hampered by concerns from poor nations that such measures would devastate their fishing economies at a time that many were just emerging from recession. «This conference has been a disaster for conservation,» said Oliver Knowles of Greenpeace. «Country after country has come out at this meeting arguing for business as usual and continued trade in wildlife species that are already devastated by human activity.» The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, opened two weeks ago with calls from the United States and Europeans to give a lifeline to overfished oceans. But the meeting ended Thursday with little to show their efforts. A bid to ban the international export of Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is key ingredient in sushi, was killed along with regulations on the pink and red coral trade. Six species of sharks failed to get protection despite studies showing their numbers had fallen by as much as 85 percent due to the booming fin trade in China and other parts of Asia. The sole shark to get some measure of protection, the porbeagle shark, ended up losing it on the final day after Asian nations reopened the debate and voted down regulations. Some conservationists were visibly distraught when the vote tally was read. «This is a significant setback for these marine species but we view it as only a temporary setback,» Tom Strickland, who headed the American delegation, said in a statement. «We will redouble our efforts with other countries around the world to fight for the protection of marine species imperiled by international trade.» Japan, for many, illustrated the changing face of CITES. It led the campaign against the listing of the marine species and spent months before the meeting lobbying aggressively.
