Blue fin tuna catches, farming worry WWF
The World Wildlife Fund, which is accusing the European Union of inaction over the commercial extinction of Mediterranean blue fin tuna, said it has sent an "SOS" to EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg to signal that EU fisheries officials are doing...
The World Wildlife Fund, which is accusing the European Union of inaction over the commercial extinction of Mediterranean blue fin tuna, said it has sent an "SOS" to EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg to signal that EU fisheries officials are doing nothing to save the tuna.
Nature Trust Malta, which circulated the WWF's announcement in Malta, said it would be taking up the matter with Dr Borg and with the five Maltese MEPs.
The WWF has criticised the EU's failure to agree to adequate measures at a recent meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which also covers the Mediterranean region, in New Orleans, USA.
ICCAT members set the minimum size of blue fin tuna that can be caught, transported, landed and traded at 10 kilogrammes, as against the previous 6.4kg limit, and also declared zero tolerance to lower-sized specimens.
However, any measure will be useless unless control is provided by observers onboard vessels, the WWF said.
The WWF is also accusing the EU delegation at ICCAT of failing to support any of its proposals.
Since 2001, the WWF has been denouncing the uncontrolled fisheries of blue fin tuna and the expansion of tuna farming through the fattening of wild blue fin tuna in cages.
A report issued by the WWF last June highlighted the unsustainability and illegality of a number of such practices in the Mediterranean. According to the report, from 2002 to 2004 the amount of tuna farmed increased from 14,620 to 22,500 tonnes, leading to over exploitation of the resource.
According to the WWF, over-fishing and over-farming have been encouraged by EU subsidies in the form of €26 million since 1997 distributed to France, Greece, Italy and Spain coupled with Japanese and Australian investments in Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece and Croatia.
The WWF urged the EU to immediately stop subsidising the tuna farm industry and to eliminate loopholes in its legislation in order to exclude the tuna farming sector from the subsidies given to aquaculture.
It also urged the setting up of a specific quota for tuna caging, coupled with a better and more transparent reporting system for the tuna catch.
Established in 1969, ICCAT is responsible for adopting measures to maintain a sustainable catch level of tuna and tuna-like species in the Atlantic.