Brussels, 31/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 11 January Eurostat published data demonstrating that catches in the Mediterranean Sea had fallen by 28% between 1993 (670,000 tonnes) and 2004 (480,000 t). In 2004, the Mediterranean was the third main EU25 fishing zone, with 8% of total catches, after the North East Atlantic (4.3 million t, 72%) and Eastern Central Atlantic (571,000 t, 10%). Italy had the highest volume of catches, with 254,298 t (mainly anchovies and clams), followed by Spain (94,462 t, mainly sardines and anchovies) Greece (87.932 t) and France (39.735 t, mainly sardines and 8,338 t of bluefin). Fishing in the four candidate countries at the time (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey) reached 543,000 t in 2004, 36% of the total in the zone. Turkey caught 505,000 t, 33% of all countries fishing in the Mediterranean (1.5 million t). Anchovies and sardines accounted for 31% of all EU25 catches. Romania and Bulgaria mainly fished for sprats in the North Sea. (lc)