Brussels, 04/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has said that it will be very vigilant in this bluefin tuna season which is in full swing in the Mediterranean. On Wednesday 3 June, it decided to grant European Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg the power to adopt emergency measures, if required, to protect bluefin tuna stocks. On 13 June last year, the Commission decided to ban purse seiner vessels from fishing for this species (with effect from 16 June for Greek, French, Italian, Cypriot and Maltese vessels and from 23 June for Spanish vessels, see details in EUROPE 9682).
The length of the 2009 season has been shortened: it began on 16 April and will end on 15 June. The Commission, which is able to monitor virtually in real time how much of the total allowable catches (TACs) have been used up, is ready to close the bluefin tuna fishery conducted by purse seiners that have exhausted their quotas, if their member states fail to do so. The Commission has not given any indication of the extent to which quotas have been used up, but points out that, as was provided for in the bluefin tuna action plan, member states have beefed up controls, with, for example, inspectors on board. It would appear, then, that this year everything is going according to the rules.
This, however, has not prevented environmental organisations for being concerned about the survival of the stock. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and Greenpeace have called for vessels not to be allowed to fish for bluefin tuna in 2009. According to Greenpeace, although 2009 quotas have fallen, they are still 50% above scientists' recommendations. Monitoring and control, it notes, have increased, but fishing capacity has remained the same.
On 6 April of this year, EU member states adopted a regulation on the revised recovery plan for bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic (see EUROPE 9877 and 9874). This regulation transposes into Community law the decisions taken at the end of 2008 by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). (L.C./transl.rt)