Bluefin tuna stocks

We would like to clarify a number of gross inaccuracies in the article entitled Bluefin Tuna Stocks On Verge Of Collapse (April 15).

The Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers is an association that represents all the tuna farms in Malta and is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the bluefin tuna fisheries.

It is a founding and active member of the Tuna Commission of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers.

It has now become customary for WWF to resort to scaremongering in order to negatively influence the media and cause public apprehension.

The release of press statements such as the one referred to at the start of the fishing season, is a case in point.

There would be nothing untoward in this approach were these bold statements supported by proven and unbiased scientific facts.

Moreover, the predicted doomsday always seems to be at a comfortable arm's length of three years or so, thus keeping the goal posts in constant motion in order to cover any eventuality resulting from the uncertainty of the scientific proof.

The crux of the matter is that the claimed scientific evidence simply does not exist and this is acknowledged by the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics, which is the advisory body of ICCAT, as well as any peer reviewed published data that attempts to assess the state of the stocks.

In the absence of clear data, it is the norm in fisheries management policies to adopt the precautionary approach. This is what ICCAT did both during the Dubrovnik (2006) and the Marrakech (2008) round of talks.

Then they reduced very substantially the quotas and with a great deal of responsibility and cooperation from the biggest player, the EU severely curtailed the open fishing season and imposed a considerable number of strict and enforceable controls.

This should ensure that this important socio-economic activity will achieve the goal of several international conventions advocating the sustainable utilisation of living marine resources. There are a number of highly-contentious scientific statements in the WWF press release. Analysis of extensive scientific data collected by several scientists throughout the Mediterranean, which has been under way since last year, is beginning to cast serious doubts on the validity of such statements. The federation is actively leading the way to providing scientific data on which valid and reliable assessments can be made in future.

As a result of all these efforts, it is becoming increasingly clear that the combination of full enforcement of the current regulatory measures and thorough collection and analysis of fishery data, which will enable the fine tuning of such measures, can result in a long-term sustainable industry without the need to resort to draconian measures such as total closure of the fishery. Other parts of the world, such as in Port Lincoln, South Australia, have succeeded to achieve this goal.

Talk of "gold" and other unsubstantiated statements and figures in the article merely serve to give an unfairly bad image and potentially damage a promising industry to our economy.

The tuna fishermen and farmers are no different from fishermen or farmers targeting other species; they are getting their just rewards for their efforts. What is for certain is that few appear to want to acknowledge the high risks involved in this business.

It is important for all concerned to be conscious of the full facts and to be aware of the bigger picture out there.

There is more than a war of words on the subject between the two divides of the North Atlantic Ocean, which is compounded by vested interests from a number of other countries further afield such as Japan and Australia.

Hidden agendas abound and the last thing we can afford as a minuscule nation is to shoot ourselves in the foot by not being able to decipher where science is being abused rather than used.