Fishermen of the lucrative bluefin tuna had better follow the rules because the EU is about to mount its largest surveillance operation yet in order to ensure quotas are observed.
As the tuna season peaks in a few days' time, the EU's fisheries control agency set in motion a plan to make sure no illegal fishing takes place, which will entail coordinating member states' control and inspection activities.
Malta, together with Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy and Spain, are pooling their resources, which include inspection vessels, surveillance aircraft and inspectors. The aim is to ensure uniform and effective control of all vessels from the EU and third countries fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean.
This is the third time the EU has mounted such a joint operation. However, a European Commission spokesman said this year's mission was bigger.
"We have been working on this year's mission for a long time and we will be tripling our efforts to make sure all bluefin tuna fishing rules are observed to the letter," a Commission official said.
"We will be monitoring fishermen from the land, sea and air and we will be making sure illegalities are not permitted."
One innovation in this year's plan is the chartering of a vessel on behalf of the EU to be used specifically for surveillance.
Combined with member states' efforts, this will allow more inspections to take place in the zones concerned. The EU wants to cooperate with other Mediterranean rim countries concerned with tuna fishing, to help them develop their capacities.
Last April, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers agreed to implement a new system of stricter certification to be able to better monitor bluefin tuna catches.
The agreement implies all EU countries will have to supervise and certify "all the steps" of the productive chain of the resource, that is, from catch and placement in cages to landing or commercialisation.
According to the agreement, the corresponding authorities will have to accredit bluefin tuna transfers in order to prevent illegal practices and confusion in overseas shipments.
Maltese fishermen will be able to catch fewer bluefin tuna than before because the EU quota allocated for this year stands at 161 tonnes, half of what it used to be just four years ago.
Earlier this year, the EU backed a proposal, submitted to the United Nations, to ban bluefin tuna trade in view of scientific evidence that stocks in the Mediterranean are in decline and the species might even become endangered. However, following massive political and commercial pressure from Japan, which imports 80 per cent of all the tuna caught in the Mediterranean, the proposal, submitted by Monaco, was defeated.