Caroline Muscat
Tuna trade 'contributes €100 million to local economy'
Future of bluefin tuna threatened
Over fishing is threatening the survival of bluefin tuna. Photo: Greenpeace
The tuna trade contributes €100 million per year to Malta's economy, an unpublished report has claimed.
The tuna industry is expected to publish the report in the coming weeks and provide the government with ammunition to fight an EU proposal to ban the international trade of bluefin tuna.
The tuna trade is concentrated in the Mediterranean where the spawning grounds are located. Malta is a major player in the international network where millions are earned by a handful of major players each year.
While Malta's fleet is small compared with other Mediterranean countries, the country remains the global capital of tuna farms, with Azzopardi Fisheries having the largest tuna farming operation in the Mediterranean. Thousands of small tuna are brought to Malta in cages by foreign fishermen to be fattened and later exported to the Japanese sushi market.
Following warnings from international environmental organisations that bluefin tuna are on the brink of extinction, the EU has increased efforts to control the exploitation of fish stocks by its Mediterranean members.
The government is preparing to oppose a possible EU proposal to ban the international trade of bluefin tuna that would deal a severe blow to the industry.
The operators are refuting claims that tuna stocks are on the brink of extinction, saying the number of tuna being quoted is inflated.
Speaking to The Sunday Times on behalf of the newly formed Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers, Carmelo Agius said: "The scientific data used to arrive at some of the conclusions about the level of exploitation are considered flawed as they are not deriving from scientifically recognised publications."
While making the argument that the report will show the catch is contributing around €100 million annually to the Maltese economy alone, the industry is also arguing that the catch is not jeopardising declining tuna stocks in the wild. The Sunday Times has not yet seen the report.
"As far as the North Atlantic bluefin tuna stock is concerned, there is the western stock and the eastern stock. The Food and Agriculture Organisation classifies the western stock as overexploited and the eastern stock (which is the one that is fished in the Mediterranean) as fully exploited. The latter is therefore not classified as overexploited and we believe that the stringent controls introduced since 2002 should ensure the long term sustainability of the fishery," Prof. Agius said.
However, Greenpeace spokesman Sebastian Losada told The Sunday Times this was a typical approach from the industry so that it could continue with business as usual. He said it is time for Malta to understand that tuna is a shared resource:
"Other Mediterranean countries also have farms but Malta has grown to such an extent that it needs everybody else's tuna. This is unreasonable. When you have access to a resource you can benefit from, you also have to act responsibly and respect the best available scientific knowledge."
The environmental lobby is not the only one expressing doubts on the industry's ability to continue its operations in a sustainable manner. In its latest assessment, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), states:
"It is apparent that the total allowable catch is not respected and is largely ineffective in controlling overall catch although enforced control seems to have deployed in the Mediterranean Sea... The available information indicates that the current fishing mortality rate is more than three times the level which would permit the stock to stabilise."
ICCAT is an inter-governmental fishery organisation and it compiles fishery statistics from members. Its research committee, consisting of international scientific experts, also concluded that the decline in tuna stocks has to be addressed.
While the tuna industry is saying that such conclusions are based on unreliable data, ICCAT said that for the eastern stock, especially in the Mediterranean, substantial under-reporting is evident.
Last month, 20 tuna weighing a total of 2.5 tonnes with a market value of €50,000 were released into the open sea from a tuna pen off Delimara after the Moroccan vessel that had caught them was found to have exceeded its quota.
International environmental organisations Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have produced countless reports showing that tuna stocks are on the brink of extinction. According to them, the time to save the tuna is now or never.
The director of WWF's European policy office, Tony Long, said: "It would be scandalous if the European Commission were to allow the region's most emblematic marine species associated with a 2,000-year-old tradition to go extinct on its watch."
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r ferriggi
Aug 31st 2009, 08:15
erba min nies isiru biljunarji ( no problem) a-skapitu tal l'ambjent tal bahar malti.
F.Reinhard
Aug 30th 2009, 23:47
I like to eat Tuna, Tuna like to eat jellyfish, jellyfish like to eat me - and tourists. And so my friends and relatives prefer not to visit me any more in Gozo.
Their other arguments not to come here any more are well known: they love festas and fireworks but hate petards, rubbish, empty appartment-ruins, missing informations of traffic rules, no air traffic to Gozo at all ...
And in winter my gozitan friends prefer swimming in Australia, because here is not one public pool ...
Any questions about local economy? ...
Andrea Portelli
Aug 30th 2009, 23:15
Better to have low stocks of tuna now and guarantee ourselves more money and food in the future , than driving this species to extinction and facing a permanent situation!!
N. Bonello
Aug 30th 2009, 23:11
EUR 100 million in Taxes - Who are they trying to kid.
As many have said this is just a case of maximising profit$ for a hand full of individuals.
I say not even the 'bakshish' stays in Malta !
The article states 'the country remains the global capital of tuna farms' - GLOBAL CAPITAL. Why are we the global capital ? because other countries will not allow these farmers turning their coastline into a toilet.
Malta is for sale and has been sold.
Joe Fenech
Aug 30th 2009, 21:48
Can the government tell us what measures are taken by these fisheries to avoid pollution?
Claude Calleja
Aug 30th 2009, 17:47
Tuna does not contribute to the Maltese economy, it simply contributes to a handful of people who are raking in these millions at the expense of our envionrnnt and our tourism industry.
Fish farms have polluted our beaches and swimming areas to advantage the racket. Whoever is benefitting from this revenue is definitley not the Maltese as a whole, simply the owners who spread some of their takings into the political arena and finance election campaigns. A small business expense compared to the astronomic profits they pocket.
No wonder political parties are reluctant to declare the source of party funding. It is evidently coming in from Tuna farming besides the construction cartels!
Charles Sammut
Aug 30th 2009, 17:02
It is not beyond imagination that there could be some 'big fish' who contributed heavily to the campaign of some MEP candidate to maintain the status quo. I mean, the EU commissioner for Fisheries is Maltese after all.
alf falzon
Aug 30th 2009, 16:58
the statement that this trade is contributing €100 million to the Malta economy carries the same weight as the statement made some years back . An entrepreneur,defending his trade during a public discussion held at Marsaxlokk, said that more tourists will be coming to malta just to see these fishfarms. incidentally a foreigner at this same meeting described these farms as 'cesspits' near our shores
Joe Fenech
Aug 30th 2009, 14:14
I'd be more interested in knowing what the government is doing to protect the wild tuna.
"Tuna trade 'contributes €100 million to local economy"
Who do we want to fool ????!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe Fenech
Aug 30th 2009, 13:15
Contributes E100 million to the LOCAL economy??????? What are these? - state owned fish farms????
D Delia
Aug 30th 2009, 12:53
The 100 million surely do not end up in the pockets of the fishermen who catch tuna "bis sunnara'. They only get about Lm3-4 a kilo at a very limited catch quota!
J. Borg
Aug 30th 2009, 12:39
100m to "local" economy?
Apart from TAX HOLIDAYS enjoyed in previously - fish-farm operations are partly owned by non-residents and these benevolent chaps enjoy very generous tax-refunds!
Nonetheless, can anyone set a price for the once pristine bays that now strangled by pollution generated from these fish & natural-environment exploiting short-sighted ventures?
Do we want "our" economy to be reliant on so-called "resource" that is factually facing extinction rather than quality tourism (not the Bugibba type)?
Minister George Pullicino had declared (last century) that all fish-farms will be relocated practically beyond the horizon (albeit within our territorial waters)........
to date I have not read that Minister Pullicino has kept his pledge - although to be fair, it was reported that he went on a yachting trip with one leading fish-farm operator (possibly to identify such relocation site?)!
The tuna lobby have significant financial interest (and muscle) to buy their way to retain the status quo - thus those who are vested with the public responsibility to ensure that our environment and quality of life are safeguarded have to shoulder personal responsibility.
Or shall we see another resignation escape-route that MEPA Board members and those appointing them (Min.Pullicino included).
j oatmon
Aug 30th 2009, 12:07
100 million - pull the other leg!
I think the vast majority of the profits/money goes to a few big wheels with tuna fish farms - the local economy would get next to nothing.
The fishermen always claim they are responsible and they 'do the right thing' the scientific evidence shows the truth, and once the fish are gone they are gone for good.
Just consider the North Sea cod - there used to be thousands of deep sea trawlers landing cod and herring, and now there may be 10 or twenty left, barely scraping a living - it's been like this for decades now in the North Sea.
Mario Tabone-Vassallo
Aug 30th 2009, 10:49
Kif il-qbid u t-tkabbir tat-tonn f'Malta ghall-Gappunizi jikkontribwixxu 100 milju Ewro ghall-ekonomija ta' Malta? Li jistghanew individwi, nemmen.