But there may still be hope for the species. On Wednesday the Obama Administration announced that it would support a proposed ban on international trade of the Atlantic bluefin tuna at the upcoming meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar. The decision, for which conservationists had long been lobbying, could pave the way toward the most wide-ranging protections ever put in place for a major commercial marine species. "This announcement could be a real turning point in the fight to protect the tuna," says Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group and a veteran of the CITES process. "This will help ensure the future of this endangered fish."

Protection for tuna was initially proposed by Monaco late last year, and if the motion passes at the CITES meeting, the fish would be listed under the treaty's Appendix I. That would amount to a total trade ban, though countries would still be able to fish the tuna for their own markets. But given that about 80% of the worldwide bluefin tuna catch is eventually eaten in Japan — with the main fishing nations being Italy, France and Spain — a global trade ban should significantly reduce pressure on the fish population, which is now at less than 15% of its estimated historical high. "This step will help fix a management system that is broken," says Mark Stevens, senior program officer for fisheries at the World Wildlife Fund. "First of all, we have to stop the overfishing pressure."

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