The bluefin tuna season for purse seiners was closed by the European Commission at midnight yesterday because the quotas were exhausted, meaning millions of euros in lost business to the local industry.
This decision to close the season a week ahead of schedule, sees five Maltese companies involved in tuna ranching activities still waiting to receive about 300 tonnes of fish caught by industrial fishing trawlers.
Fishing can still continue by traditional means, including long-lines used by Maltese fishermen.
However, The Times is informed that Malta's quota, which this year was slashed to 161 tonnes, from 400 tonnes four years ago, had been caught in the first week of the season, which started on June 1, so Maltese fishermen were not allowed to catch more tuna.
Reacting to Brussels' decision to recall all purse seiners to port, a spokesman for the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers criticised the move and said this would cost the industry millions of euros.
"Five boats out of the 27 fishing in the Mediterranean have still not surpassed their individual quota and the Commission should grant them more time to fish. We still have to receive about 300 tonnes this year with a market value of millions of euros. If we won't get the fish in our farms the industry and the Maltese economy will lose out," he said.
Malta's five operators of tuna ranches were this year expected to receive about 1,600 tonnes of fish to be exported to Japan once they are fattened in cages.
"We are in favour of controls and this year we had the toughest controls ever. However, individual quotas should be honoured and we expect the Commission to allow these boats to continue fishing until they reach their quota," the spokesman said.
European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said the closure of the purse seine fishery was necessary to protect the fragile stock of bluefin tuna and to ensure its recovery as envisaged by the recovery plan of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).
She said the Commission had declared a zero tolerance approach towards overfishing and pledged to take all necessary measures to ensure full compliance across the board.
The Commission's decision was welcomed by Greenpeace, which said tuna fishing should not have been permitted at all this season. "Bluefin tuna is on the brink of extinction and fishing should never have taken place this year - yet another example of how politics have failed our oceans and the Mediterranean," Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Oliver Knowles said.
Scientists had shown that the only appropriate fishing quota for bluefin tuna was zero, he added.
This year, Greenpeace mounted an aggressive anti-tuna fishing campaign with its ships, the Rainbow Warrior and the Arctic Sunrise, confronting fishermen in the Mediterranean over the past few weeks.
An activist had to be airlifted to hospital in Malta last week after an incident with French fishermen when he was hit in the leg with a grappling hook.
According to Greenpeace, it was estimated that over 80 per cent of bluefin tuna had already been taken from the world's waters and the species could disappear if fishing was not halted immediately.
Greenpeace has for years been campaigning for better fisheries management and for a global network of marine reserves to cover 40 per cent of the world's oceans, including in the Mediterranean's bluefin tuna spawning grounds.