"TOKYO -- Japan, which eats an estimated three-quarters of the world's annual bluefin catch, announced Thursday that it would not comply with ...  a ban on tuna trade....

The U.S. government said this week that it supports a proposed ban on international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna because the species is at risk of extinction. The adult population of eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin has plunged 74 percent in the past 50 years, much of it in the past decade. In the western Atlantic, the population has fallen 82 percent."

Blaine Harden reports for the Washington Post March 5, 2010. [2]