Brussels, 10/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 6 June, the European Commission adopted a proposal which seeks to strengthen the multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna stocks in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The measures adopted last year by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), amending the recovery plan in place, are to be transposed into EU law. To rebuild the stocks the ICCAT recommendation provides for a further reduction of the total allowable catch (TAC) (TAC for EU vessels of 5,756 tonnes in 2011, compared with 7,087 tonnes in 2010) and for a strengthening of measures to reduce fishing capacity and for reinforcing control measures, in particular with regard to transfer and caging operations. The recovery plan seeks to achieve a biomass corresponding to a maximum sustainable yield of at least 60% probability.
End of season for Spanish seiners. On Thursday 9 June, the Commission adopted a regulation banning Spanish or Spanish-registered vessels from fishing for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Spain has fully exhausted its quota for purse seiners (897.16 tonnes) and the closure of the bluefin tuna fishery became effective at 5.00pm on Friday 10 June. The Commission took the decision to close the fishery with the agreement of the Spanish government. Spain had already called its purse seiners back to port on 9 June. The other EU seiners can continue to fish for bluefin tune but the end of the season is fast approaching (15 June). (L.C./transl.rt)