February 17, 2010

IELP unravels complicated legal issues relating to bluefin tuna protection

With many commercially valuable fish stocks crashing and the Parties to the CITES debating a proposal that would effectively ban the commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, IELP has been instrumental in unraveling a number of complicated legal questions.

With many commercially valuable fish stocks crashing and the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) debating a proposal that would effectively ban the commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, IELP has been instrumental in unraveling a number of complicated legal questions.

Foremost among those questions is the issue of how the CITES permit scheme applies to marine species taken in the high seas.

Professor Wold is a member of a CITES working group negotiating rules and untangling important legal and implementation questions arising under CITES’ “Introduction from the Sea” certificate regime. The following fact sheet introduces these questions.

In addition, IELP has been hired by Greenpeace and others to determine how CITES applies to species like Atlantic bluefin tuna and sharks that are also managed by other international bodies, such as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).