Bicref welcomes tuna ban decision

The Biological Conservation Research Foundation (Bicref) said it supports the EU's decision to stop large-scale blue fin tuna fishing and illegal fishing operations.

It said that from the very onset of tuna penning in Malta, Bicref indicated the relevant issues in the protection of Maltese blue fin tuna fishing using traditional methods, the blue fin tuna stock spawning south of the Maltese Islands and the coastal ecosystem that would have become affected by such large tuna penning operations.

"It is a great pity that now Malta would need to suffer various other problems including being reputed, with some other countries, to be responsible for drastically decreasing blue fin tuna in our seas, when indeed prior to tuna penning, the Maltese fishermen community fishing on blue fin tuna shared the catch among them, and was reputed to be legal and sustainable," it said.

Bicref believes that the blue fin tuna stock spawning in the Mediterranean, marine biodiversity and sustainable fishing using traditional methods, allowing the whole fishing community to benefit from a resource without compromising these same resources for future generations, were serious requirements that needed to be safeguarded.

The EU's decision, it said, was assisting such a process.