Group Seeks to Ban Fishing of Bluefin Tuna

Bluefin tuna risk being fished to extinction in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, a conservation group warned, appealing for an immediate ban on catches.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said catches were running at 40% above the legal quota. It said boats from Libya, Turkey and European Union nations led by France were responsible for most of the illegal and unregulated catches.

The organization urged the Brussels-based EU to push for tough controls at a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas set for November.