Traditional tuna fishing communities across southern Europe are nervously awaiting  the outcome of a convention of the trade in endangered species.              

Fishermen from Italy and Spain say a proposed ban on the sale of Atlantic bluefin tuna would ruin their livelihoods. 

[Joaquin Pachego, Fishing Boat Captain]:             

"A complete disaster. I have been doing this for 36 years. I am 52 years old and I have been doing this since I was a child. I can't even think about it. We will fight and fight to keep what we have because there is nothing else. Where would we go?"

The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, is debating a Monaco proposal that bluefin tuna needs to recover from commercial overfishing.  

Environmentalists say bluefin stocks are 85 per cent lower than they were before they became a major commercial product.  

Fisheries in southern Spain's Andalucia largely use traditional fishing methods dating back 3,000 years. 

They blame the industrial fleets for the species depletion. In southern Italy too they're worried.   

Giuseppe Saraceno,  marketing director of a local Tuna company, says it's not just individual fishermen who will suffer.              

[Giuseppe Saraceno, Marketing Director, Tuna Processing and Trading Company]:        

"The ban is going to have a serious backlash on the whole sector of tuna fishing and processing. It is also going to seriously affect the already weak economy of southern Italy, because this kind of fishing is culturally typical in the region."

The European Union has the largest bluefin fishing quotas, but it is Japan that consumes over 75 percent of the global catch, as the fish is highly prized in Japanese sushi dishes.  

The ban refers to the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean catches in the Pacific and elsewhere would still be allowed.   

Despite protests by local fisheries the European Union is expected to support the ban in the face of hefty opposition from Asia.