The population of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna have dramatically declined in recent decades as the popular species has been overfished, particularly by fishing fleets that export their catch to the Japanese market where the tuna are enjoyed as sushi.

ALT TEXT GOES HERE.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

A bluefin tuna is unloaded on its way to be cut and distributed to New York's top sushi restaurant at a fish market in Jersey City, New Jersey, March 12, 2010.

The overfishing of the highly migratory fish, which can easily weigh in at much more than 1,000 pounds and also are prized by recreational fisherman for the fight they put up, has resulted in a 72 percent decline in the adult population of the fish in eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean and an 82 percent decline in the western Atlantic.

Such numbers led the U.S. to support a proposed ban on the international trade of Bluefin Tuna at a global meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora currently taking place in Doha, Qatar.

But as NPR's Christopher Joyce reported in a recent piece on Morning Edition it was expected that there would be fierce resistance to such a trade ban. Those fears have come to pass.

The Associated Press is reporting:

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Delegates at a U.N. conference on endangered
species say there is growing opposition to a proposed ban on the
export of Atlantic bluefin tuna.

The officials said Wednesday that several Arab countries have
joined China's opposition to the ban, arguing it would hurt poor
fishing nations and was not backed by sound science.

Australia, Peru and others have backed a weakened proposal at
the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species that would regulate the trade but not ban it outright.
Conservationists say that would not go far enough.

The AP adds that the Japanese have proposed that the tuna stocks be managed regionally, an approach conservationists say wouldn't work since the fish cross international borders as they migrate thousands of miles between spawning and feeding. Conservationists have supported an outright ban on bluefin tuna exports.

Thus it appears that no serious steps to combat the collapse in the numbers of these tuna are likely at the meeting and overfishing of this impressive creature will continue apace.