Greenpeace says 2,800 tons of tuna unsold in Malta

About 2,800 tons of bluefin tuna caught last year are still being held in Maltese fish farms as ranchers were unable to sell them to Japan, according to Greenpeace.

Greenpeace said this was evidence there was no need for more fishing next year as more than 10,000 tons were still held in EU ranches.

Stepping up its demand to close the Mediterranean bluefin fishery as the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) started in Paris, activists displayed a banner outside the meeting venue reading Bluefin Tuna: 8 Days to Live.

A strong police contingent surrounded the activists and eventually pulled down the banner.

Dubbing it a “final mayday call”, Greenpeace said years of overfishing, mismanagement and political failure meant ICCAT had to close the Mediterranean bluefin fishery until it was proved the species recovered.

“ICCAT documents released this week show thousands of tons of bluefin tuna are languishing in cages in the Mediterranean, apparently unable to be sold. This begs the question: Why continue to fish an endangered species if thousands of tons of it cannot be sold?” a Greenpeace spokesman said.

Quoting ICCAT documents, Greenpeace said as many as 10,200 tons of bluefin tuna remained alive in cages in Mediterranean tuna farms. This was close to the entire bluefin quota allocated for 2010. Most of this caged tuna was kept in Croatia (up to 4,400 tons), Malta (up to 2,800 tons) and Turkey (up to 1,900 tons).

Greenpeace is demanding that this year’s ICCAT meeting decides to close the Mediterranean bluefin fishery and protect key spawning grounds for the species.

The European Commission, which negotiates on behalf of its member states at the ICCAT meeting, originally wanted to slash bluefin quotas for next year to 6,000 tons from the 13,500 allowed this year. However, Malta and other Mediterranean countries blocked the Commission’s proposal and said the 2011 quotas should remain the same or slightly lower than the quotas allowed to be fished this year.

Malta has the largest tuna ranching facilities in the EU and the local industry claims it exports some €80 million worth of tuna each year to Japan. The decision of ICCAT is expected to be taken in the coming days.