The catch quota for Malta’s tuna industry is expected to remain unchanged at 160 tons for next year but the EU is seeking to introduce stricter measures to protect the bluefin.

“Malta is expected to retain the same quota it had this year,” said an EU official, who is involved in talks at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Istanbul.

This year the EU did not present any amendments to the European quota as no new scientific advice was available since the 2011 quota of 12,900 tons for the European fishery was established. This meant, the official said, that the 2012 fishery should be the same as this year’s.

This decision, which is expected to be confirmed at the meeting, means Maltese fishermen will next year be able to catch some 160 tons of tuna, which although is lower than the 400 tons in 2008 is still sufficient to reap a good profit.

Apart from direct catches, Malta’s industry is also involved in ranching activities, holding the biggest tuna farms in the Mediterranean. This enables Maltese ranchers to buy part of the quotas of other European fishermen and transfer the relatively small fish to Maltese waters to fatten them before shipping them to Japan.

Although the EU does not seem to be changing the quota, the European Commission is insisting on the introduction of more stringent measures to ensure strict rules are observed and to further limit the possibility of illegal fishing and fraud.

The EU is set to propose the introduction of an electronic catch documentation system so that all the tuna caught will be directly inputted into a foolproof electronic system instead of the manual paper system in use, which may lead to abuse.

The EU will also be insisting on similar management programmes to be introduced for Mediterranean swordfish, whose stocks are also being depleted in an unsustainable manner due to overfishing.

At the beginning of the ICCAT conference, Malta’s industry rejected strong lobbying attempts by international environment groups, particularly the World Wildlife Fund, to ban tuna ranching activities in the Mediterranean.

According to WWF, ranching activities are leading to abuse, claiming that many of the fattened fish are not even reported and bypass the system, allegations which the Maltese industry described as “hysteria” to influence the proceedings at the ICCAT conference.

The Maltese bluefin industry said all fish kept in Maltese cages are fully certified and legally caught.