Brussels, 17/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will, with effect from 2015, advocate an increase in bluefin tuna quotas in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic if the scientific data confirm that stocks are recovering, said Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki on Thursday 17 October at the Fisheries Council. The scientific advice will be available at the start of 2014. The call to increase catches of bluefin tuna will be made, then, not at the meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in Cape Town on 18-25 November, but in 2014.
Spain is thought to have urged a 20% increase in quotas from 2015. This is a call supported by Italy, Malta, Croatia, Greece and Portugal, with France taking the view that it would be better to keep quotas at current levels. Damanaki said that, although the new scientific report had not been received, early data suggest that the sacrifices made by fishermen had delivered results. “We will follow the scientific advice as we have always done”, she promised.
Last year, ICCAT agreed a total admissible catch (TAC) of 13,400 tonnes for 2013 and 2014 together.
Ministers held an exchange of views on the next annual ICCAT meeting. The Commission said that, at that meeting, it would argue for an international ban on the practice of finning, which is already prohibited in the EU. This practice involves the removal of the sharks' fins with the animals then thrown back into the sea to die of their wounds. (LC/transl.fl)