The FAO Ad Hoc Expert Advisory Panel for the Assessment of
Proposals to Amend Appendices I and II of CITES Concerning
Commercially-exploited Aquatic Species was held at FAO headquarters from 13 to
16 July 2004. It was convened in response to the agreement by the twenty-fifth
session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) on the Terms of Reference for
an ad hoc expert advisory panel for assessment of proposals to the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and
the agreement at the ninth session of the COFI Sub-Committee on Fish Trade
(Bremen, Germany, February 2004) that FAO should convene such a panel to review
any proposals to the thirteenth Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP-13) for
listing or delisting commercially-exploited species in time to be considered at
that meeting of the Conference of the Parties.
The task of the Panel was to:
i) assess each proposal from a scientific perspective in accordance with the
CITES biological listing criteria, taking account of the recommendations on the
criteria made to CITES by FAO; ii) comment, as appropriate, on technical aspects
of the proposal in relation to biology, ecology, trade and management issues, as
well as, to the extent possible, the likely effectiveness for
conservation.
The Panel considered the following four proposals: (1) CoP13
Prop. 32. Proposal to include Carcharodon carcharias (white shark) on
CITES Appendix II, including an annotation that states that a zero annual export
quota is established for this species; (2) CoP13 Prop. 33. Proposal to include
Cheilinus undulatus (humphead wrasse) in Appendix II in accordance with
Article II, paragraph 2(a) of the Convention; (3) CoP13 Prop. 35. Proposal to
include Lithophaga lithophaga (Mediterranean date mussel) in Appendix II;
(4) CoP13 Prop. 36. Proposal for an amendment of the annotation for Helioporidae
spp., Tubiporidae spp., Scleractinia spp., Milleporidae spp. and Stylasteridae
spp.
