Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund (WWF) yesterday claimed that two Italian-registered spotter planes are surveying the waters between Malta, Pantelleria and Lampedusa and informing Italian fishermen where to catch large quantities of tuna.

According to Greenpeace and WWF there are 28 Italian industrial fishing vessels in the area.

Aerial spotting in support of bluefin tuna fishing activities is banned in the Mediterranean by international law, as it gives too strong an advantage to a massive hi-tech fleet that is already far larger than the capacity recommended by scientists for the survival of the species and the fishery.

WWF and Greenpeace said they have pictures proving that the spotting planes bearing Italian registration were in the airport of Pantelleria on June 1.

Official flight documents obtained by both organisations prove that one of the planes was engaged in spotting activities based on the island of Pantelleria on May 31, whereas the other was actively spotting tuna between the Italian islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa on June 1 and 2.

Both Italian planes had been documented by Greenpeace during the 2007 fishing season as being engaged in illegal tuna spotting in the same area of the southern Mediterranean.

Greenpeace documented how one plane was flying in search of bluefin tuna in June 2007, supporting the illegal activity of the Italian purse seine vessels Ligny Primo, Luca Maria and Maria Antonietta, belonging to the Associazione Produttori Tonnieri del Tirreno di Salerno.

Greenpeace and WWF yesterday called on the European Commission and other Contracting Parties of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to urgently close the fishery in order to avoid any further damage to the bluefin tuna stock, which is in a critical pre-collapse situation according to the international scientific community.