Prince Edward Island's $5-million bluefin tuna fishery could be shutdown next month if enough countries support the European Union's call to list the giant fish as an endangered species.
Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says Canada has the most to lose at next month's meeting of the 175 member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar - where the European Union holds 27 votes.
That's because if bluefin tuna is listed as an endangered species it cannot be exported internationally.
Nearly 100 per cent of the bluefin tuna caught in Canada is exported internationally.
"This would effectively shutdown the tuna fishery," Shea said during an address at the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association annual meeting Friday night in Charlottetown.
"What will happen if there's a positive vote, the European Union continues to fish - because they consume all their fish - the United States continues to fish because they don't export and Canada's market dries up. It's unfair that we would carry most of the burden."
There are 359 tuna fishermen in P.E.I.
Walter Bruce has been fishing bluefin tuna in North Lake for more than 40 years. He has sat on an international committee that sets the rules for the tuna fishery.
"The tuna is the new seal," said Bruce.
"It's a beautiful fish. The wildlife groups are all playing it up, flashing it to the world. It's a big money maker for those groups."
Groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) support the bluefin ban.
"The state of the Atlantic bluefin tuna today really is an absolute catastrophe," said Wendy Elliot, program manager for the environmental group WWF in Gland, Switzerland.
"We are seeing a historic decline in the order of 85 to 90 per cent, which is huge, obviously. And the driver of that decline has been severe overfishing, most for trade in particular to the lucrative markets in Japan."
But Bruce said he's been fishing bluefin since the fishery started and he doesn't see the same declines as reported by the WWF.
"I can go back to '74, that's when quotas came in first, we had scientists tell us then there's no more than 1,000 giant bluefin tuna left in the west Atlantic. We've been fishing a long time since then and caught many thousands of fish and there still seems to be the same amount out there."
Shea said Canadian officials continue to lobby member countries in hopes of winning over enough support to prevent a bluefin tuna ban.
"We have been working very, very hard as a department, talking to all of those other countries, making the case for Canada," said Shea.
"This puts Canada in a very unfair position. We are going to fight this tooth and nail to ensure that bluefin tuna doesn't get listed as an endangered species."
