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Europe's Mediterranean nations have roundly rejected a proposal by the EU's executive arm to slash the global quota for catching the lucrative sushi mainstay of bluefin tuna next year.
Fisheries ministers meeting in Luxembourg made their position known three weeks ahead of an international meeting of fishing nations on bluefin tuna, a species scientists say is endangered.
French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire called for the quota to remain at 13,500 tonnes as he opposed a European Commission proposal to cut total allowable catches more than twofold next year to 6,000 tonnes.
A stable quota "preserves the resource and at the same time guarantees work for fishermen", Le Maire said.
"Other solutions, notably the more restrictive quota of 6,000 tonnes, for example, would lead to the loss of 500 fishing jobs in France," he said.
Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain backed the French position, according to diplomats.
Britain was the only country to express support for Brussels' proposed quota reduction, while Germany and Sweden were less clear about their position, the diplomats said.
The British fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, said that safeguarding bluefin tuna was a "top priority" and that London would work with the commission and EU partners to ensure its future sustainability.
"We are aware that a number of other member states have significant fishing interests in this important and iconic species and hope that everyone agrees that all necessary action should be taken, based on the best available scientific advice, to safeguard its future," he said in a statement.
The EU has to agree on a position ahead of a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) between November 17 and 27 in Paris.
"We will work with the commission and with other member states to agree tough conservation measures for all stocks, including sharks, under ICCAT's remit," Benyon said.
Japan consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as "kuro maguro" (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs as the "black diamond" because of its scarcity.
Following aggressive lobbying from Japan, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a UN body, rejected a ban on trade in the Atlantic bluefin tuna in March.
With a ban now off the table, European fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki wants to slash the quota. Europeans take more than 50 percent of the total allowable catches.
Damanaki, citing scientists, argues that reducing the worldwide quota to 6,000 tonnes would give the stock a 66 percent chance to reach a sustainable level by 2020.
The Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers in a statement, said that the Standing Committee for Research and Statistics (SCRS) within ICCAT has recently concluded a comprehensive survey of Blue Fin stocks in the Mediterranean. The survey showed that the biomass of blue fin tuna in the Mediterranean was at least twice of what was previously guessed and that the management measures in place were effective and were giving the desired results. The scientists concluded that there was no present danger of a collapse of the stock and that the probabilities of recovery of the stock by 2022 meet or exceed ICCAT recommendations.
The federation said the decision of the Maltese government to oppose further reductions in the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was therefore supported by the relevant scientific advice.
"It is also evident that a decrease in TAC to just 6,000 tons to be divided among all European Nations would have resulted in a situation which would make it impossible for the operators at different levels to survive financially. This would inevitably result in job losses and hardship for the fishing sector," the federation said.
In Malta this would translate to a TAC of less than 70 tons. The test of sustainability requires an assessment of human economic situations to be made. A TAC of 6,000 tons will not be sustainable from an economic point of view. In Malta the Tuna Farming industry provides the equivalent of 1,000 full time jobs."
The federation said the solution was not to impose further reductions but to strengthen existing control mechanisms to ensure compliance with the laws.
This after all, was the stand taken by the Maltese Government, with which the federation completely agreed.