Bluefin tuna stocks 'on verge of collapse'

The supply of blue fin tuna may be depleted within three years if overfishing continued at the present rate, warned the environmental group WWF yesterday.

The warning comes as Maltese fishermen today start casting their long-lines to catch what is considered to be "gold" in fishing terms.

The fish is by far the most lucrative of any local catches as the Japanese market is prepared to pay millions of euros for its prized meat. Beyond this, thousands of small tuna are brought to Malta in cages by foreign fishermen to be fattened at various tuna ranches along the Maltese coastline and later exported to the Japanese sushi market.

Due to a recovery plan imposed by the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) and the EU, Malta's total allowable catch has this year been reduced by 80 tonnes compared to last year. According to EU sources, Maltese fishermen will this year be allowed to catch 262.92 tonnes of blue fin tuna, compared to last year's quota of 343.54 tonnes.

Though the recovery plan is considered to be a step in the right direction, it has not been taken very seriously by environmental groups as overfishing remains rampant and fishermen difficult to control. According to environmental experts, if the trend continues, the supply of tuna will almost certainly collapse in a few years' time.

During a press conference yesterday, a WWF official said overfishing would wipe out the breeding population of blue fin tuna within three years. Its analysis shows that the blue fin tuna which spawn - those aged four years and older - will have disappeared by 2012 at the current fishing rates.

"For years people have been asking when the collapse of this fishery will happen and now we have the answer," said Sergi Tudela, WWF Mediterranean head of fisheries.

"Blue fin tuna is collapsing as we speak and yet the fishery will kick off again (today) for business as usual. It is absurd and inexcusable to open a fishing season when stocks of the target species are collapsing."

Describing a recent ICCAT agreement as a "disaster" and "disgrace", European environmental groups said participating countries, including EU member states, again chose to ignore their own scientists and set quotas 47 per cent higher than recommended. According to the WWF analysis, official data show that the average size of mature tunas has more than halved since the 1990s and this has had a disproportionately high impact since bigger fish produce many more offspring.

WWF said the blue fin tuna could only be saved by completely halting fishing between May and June when the tuna rushed through the Straits of Gibraltar to spawn in the Mediterranean. Many of the catches by mega-fishing boats, called purse-seiners, were made in these two months, it said.