OPPOSED TO THE LISTING OF ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA UNDER THE CONVENTION ON TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES (CITES)

We the undersigned demand that the U.S. government (Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA and Department of State) oppose any listing of bluefin tuna under CITES in March of 2010. The latest 2008 stock assessment for the east and west estimates that there are at least 5,170,000 fish prospering in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Atlantic bluefin tuna are not remotely close to being endangered with extinction; nor could fishermen chase down the last several hundred pairs of a highly fecund tuna (millions of eggs), widely distributed tuna from Argentina to Norway. The 2009 ICCAT meeting in Recife Brazil was a complete success with the new eastern quota of 13,500 which is consistent with the SCRS advice. ICCAT also agreed to the scientific advice to extend the purse seine spawning closure to 11 months. The new plan also requires implementation of an eastern rebuilding plan beginning in 2011 that has a 60\% probability of achieving Maximum Sustainable Yield by 2023.

Further, with the reduction in western quota to 1,800 mt beginning in 2010 we will also be ending overfishing of the western stock. A CITES listing would only hurt the U.S. fishermen who have been conserving the resource, doing more than our share and following the scientific advice since 1981.