Brussels, 05/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - As announced (see EUROPE 9224), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) announced on 5 July that bluefin tuna stocks in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean are threatened with extinction because of excessive, and often illegal, fishing by European (mainly French), Libyan and Turkish fishermen. “The European Commission risks bearing witness to the collapse of this centuries-old fishery,” said Simon Cripps, Director of WWF's Global Marine Programme. EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg was urged to “call for an immediate total closure of the bluefin tuna fishery” and WWF argues for the adoption of “strong management measures … that guarantee a future for the fishery” at November's ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) meeting.
According to a WWF study, catches reached 44,948 tonnes (t) in 2004 and 45,547t in 2005, at least 40% above the authorised quota of 32,000t, set by ICCAT. The environmental organisation is calling for the immediate closure of the fishery in the Mediterranean and the East Atlantic, to give time for the implementation of strict regulating measures and a recovery plan. This recovery plan should, according to WWF, impose: - “a drastic reduction” in catches and farming capacity; - longer seasonal closure (from 1st May to 31 July every year, rather than from 15 July to 15 August, as at present); - significant improvement in the control system and declaration of catches (including the compulsory presence of observers on board vessels and in fish farms); - increasing the minimum weight at which a fish can be landed from 10 to 30 kg.
Among the illegal catches, WWF particularly blames the industrial fishing fleets of the EU (especially France), Libya and Turkey. In 2004, it says, France reported catches of over 9,450t to the EU, but only declared 7,030t to the competent regional organisation. It says that Libya and Turkey did not declare any catches for 2004 and 2005. The majority of European bluefin tuna seiners have either been modernised or rebuilt over the last ten years through substantial EU grants, something, the report says, that has led to too great efficiency, encouraging over-fishing.
According to WWF, traditional fishermen operating in the Straits of Gibraltar have seen their catches fall by 80% over the last three years, compared with the 1990s. “In the race to catch shrinking tuna stocks, industrial fleets are switching from traditional fishing grounds to the last breeding refuges in the eastern Mediterranean and Libyan waters,” says the report's author Roberto Mielgo Bregazzi. Illegal catches are often processed at sea before being sent to the Japanese market, says WWF. ICCAT scientists are due to make their recommendations on quotas for Atlantic bluefin tuna in October.