Greenwire: Reversing a decision made earlier this week, the United Nations has rejected a proposal to regulate trade in dwindling stocks of porbeagle sharks, dismissing protections for any of the shark species proposed at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
At the last day of the conference, Asian countries reopened debate on the porbeagle and led the vote to kill the proposal. The move dashes hopes environmentalists had of protecting at least one shark breed, after nations voted earlier this week to reject protections on hammerheads, among other species.
The victory is another in a long string of successes for Japan. Beyond blocking shark protections, the country successfully defeated proposed bans on bluefin tuna and protections on several species of coral.
“Japan clearly mobilized massive efforts to keep fisheries out of CITES,” said Mark W. Roberts, senior counsel and policy adviser for the watchdog group Environmental Investigation Agency.
The Japanese were more organized and effective in staking out their positions and seeing them through, delegates said. And the country faced intense domestic pressure to block the ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, with fears that it could cripple the country’s fisheries industry.
“We are not pressuring anyone,” said Hisashi Endo, director of the Ecosystem and Conservation Office in the Fisheries Agency of Japan. “We are talking to many countries and expressing our opinion and seeking their understanding” (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, March 25). – PV