Malta's fishing quota for blue fin tuna has been slashed to 161 tonnes for next year.

The decision was taken at a meeting of EU ministers responsible for fisheries which ended yesterday in Brussels. Quotas have been cut across the EU as part of a recovery plan as agreed at a meeting in Brasil of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).

Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino, who represented Malta, said he was backing a call by Italy for the European Commission to provide new financial measures to cushion the socio-economic impact of the reduction of the quota.

The Rural Affairs Ministry said the Maltese government was showing it was committed to measures for the sustainability of Blue Fin tuna.

The quota has been going down steadily, having been 331 tonnes in 2008 and 262 tonnes this year.

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