No confirmation yet of tuna catch legality

The secretariat of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is not yet in a position to say whether the 800 tuna released from a Maltese-owned pen by conservation activists was legal or not.

Asked about the legal status of the catch in question, the ICCAT secretariat said "all the information available in relation to these catches and fishing operations, when complete, will be submitted to the ICCAT commission".

The release of the tuna occurred last Thursday when activists from the conservation group Sea Shepherd rammed a tuna pen belonging to the Maltese company Fish and Fish. Photos taken by Sea Shepherd appear to show one of its divers ripping the net. The pen was being towed back to Malta after catches made by Libyan purse seiners.

The Maltese government has repeatedly said the catches were legal and that it would not tolerate attacks on Maltese fishermen doing "legal work".

However, Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson has defended the action claiming the bluefin tuna were illegally caught out of season, they were juveniles and that an ICCAT inspector was not aboard when the catch was made.

Contacted by The Times yesterday, a Libyan fisheries official insisted all Libyan catches were legal and that all purse seiners were back in the harbour on June 15 at 1 a.m., with ICCAT inspectors on board.

This information could not be confirmed by ICCAT at the time of writing.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs yesterday defended the government's stand saying the catches were made by authorised Libyan purse seiners registered on the ICCAT website. Regional observers were present aboard each purse seiner during the fishing activity and they "did not report any irregularities".

Asked whether the ministry had seen the relevant documents showing that the catches were above board, the ministry said: "As per current ICCAT recommendations and EU regulations, the documents have to be on board the vessel transporting the fish, so that in case inspections are carried out at sea, the necessary documents can be checked."

The ministry stressed that the ICCAT verification processes were "rigorous" and that the report on this particular catch "was sent to Libya for the necessary cross-checks to be carried out".

Sources within the ministry said the process of legal verification was present at three stages: at the time of the catch, when the fish is transferred to be transported and when it is caged. In the case of the pen involved in the Sea Shepherd incident, the final stage will not take place because there are no fish to cage.

This year's bluefin tuna season was open between June 1 and June 15 but the EU stopped the fishing season halfway, on June 9, saying the EU member states had already reached their respective quotas.

Atlantic bluefin tuna has been on the decline. A report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species stated that "the absolute extent of decline over the 50-year historical period ranging from 1957 to 2007 is estimated at 74.2 per cent, the bulk of which (60.9 per cent) was in the last 10 years".

The same report had recommended that Atlantic bluefin tuna be listed as an endangered species, meaning it could not be traded or caught. This proposed ban was however defeated.