**The EU has decided to support a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, reports indicate.**The bloc is reported to have agreed to push for a ban at next week’s meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The US has already backed such a move, but Japan - where most bluefin is eaten - may opt out of CITES controls.
The EU is likely to back exemptions for traditional fishers, and defer the ban pending scientific reports.
Malta is reportedly the only nation to have voted against the ban.
The details of the EU decision have not yet been formally released.
Last year, scientists commissioned by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) said the bluefin’s decline had been so stark that a ban was merited.
Iccat’s member states, however - which include EU nations such as Spain, France and Italy - decided to continue fishing, but with lowered quotas.
The stock is now at about 15% of the level it was in the era before industrial fishing began.
Most bluefin is sold to Japan for use in sushi and sashimi restaurants. Under a CITES ban, EU member states would not be allowed to export bluefin caught in their waters to Japan, and would not be able to fish in international waters.
However, conservationists and some EU countries have been concerned that other Iccat countries around the Mediterranean - the principal fishing ground - could also opt out of a CITES ban.
That would allow those countries to continue fishing and exporting the tuna to Japan.
The CITES meeting, in Qatar, opens this weekend.