Agree on tuna recovery plan or season will end, EU members told

EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg has warned he will close the tuna fishing season this week if no agreement is reached on a recovery plan for the species during a meeting of the EU Fisheries Council in Luxembourg today.

Dr Borg said the season would have to be closed as the provisional quota set by the council in December would have been exhausted.

This is the second attempt by the Commission to secure agreement at the council on a staggered reduction of tuna fishing in the Mediterranean.

EU ministers last month failed to agree on a cut following opposition by France, Italy and Spain.

Sources close to the Commission told The Times it is confident the plan will be approved this time round.

"There is a very good chance that agreement will be reached this time. The threat of ending the season abruptly must be kept in mind and so ministers are under more pressure to agree."

The EU had agreed to introduce a four-year plan limiting tuna fishing following scientific evidence that the species in the Mediterranean is being over-fished and that it may be close to extinction.

Every member state is now given a specific quota, to be reduced by 25 per cent over a four-year period. According to the draft agreement expected to be approved today, Malta has been allocated 355 tonnes for this year.

Over the past years, blue fin tuna has become a very popular delicacy in Japan and elsewhere and has been heavily fished to meet demand. Over the past 30 years, blue fin tuna stocks have dropped by 80 per cent and the global tuna market in 2002 was worth €3.75 billion, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.