Brussels closes Bluefin tuna season

The European Commission yesterday announced that the bluefin tuna fishing season for industrial trawlers is to close as from Monday. On the other hand, traditional fishing, as pursued by the majority of Maltese fishermen, can so far still go ahead.

The decision was taken in Brussels by European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg following information that the quotas permitted for this year are close to being reached.

Commission sources told The Times that in practical terms the decision means that purse seiners cannot catch more tuna from Monday and that tuna farms cannot accept any fish deriving from these purse seiners.

Malta should not be affected drastically as the majority of Maltese fishermen are still fishing for tuna in the traditional way using long line fishing. In fact, Malta has only one registered purse seiner.

On the other hand, tuna ranching farms, which are abundant in Malta, might be hit negatively as they cannot accept any more tuna to fatten before exporting them to Japan.

The EU executive yesterday said that all purse seiners from Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta will be prohibited from fishing from Monday while purse seiners from Spain will be prohibited from June 23. It said that other segments of the fleet which still have quotas available are free to continue fishing.

Purse seiners are considered to be the main culprits of the recent depletion of tuna stocks as they are able to catch hundreds of fish at one go. According to estimates, at the height of the season, in June, the EU purse seine fleet is capable of catching 10 per cent of the EU's total annual quota in just three days. The current bluefin tuna campaign is being monitored through an unprecedented inspection and control campaign by the Commission that started following the substantial overfishing by the EU fleet in 2007 and the serious control and enforcement deficiencies detected in all member states involved in the fishing industry.

Last year, overfishing was largely driven by the industrial purse seine sector of the fleet, which takes more than 70 per cent of the total catch.