Brussels, 10/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - WWF, the global conservation organisation, has sounded the alarm and called for the immediate closure of the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Atlantic, according to a press release published on 8 May, the day after the failure of European ministers to adopt recovery measures for this species (se EUROPE 9422).
Noting that the Council has postponed discussions on bluefin tuna until mid-June, WWF says that, even if an agreement is reached then, it will be too late for the tuna. Experts have long been predicting the collapse of stocks, WWF goes on, although the season only opened officially on 1 May.
Following the Council's failure to agree, EU total allowable catches (TACs) for 2007 remain, for the moment, at 9,398 tonnes (50% less than in 2006), in line with the December 2006 agreement which set provisional fishing possibilities. The quotas annexed to the proposal on recovery measures are much higher (16, 779 tonnes, or an 8% reduction on 2006 levels), these quotas having been agreed in January by the members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT). WWF says the provisional quota will be reached in a matter of days. The European Commission will then be required to close the fishery.
WWF points out that Norway, unlike the EU, has assumed its responsibilities and, in the light of the critical state of stocks, banned the fishing of bluefin tuna by its fleet until the end of the year. (lc)