A moratorium on blue fin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean from next season has not been ruled out by EU ministers responsible for fisheries.
The move is one of the suggestions proposed by scientists to save the popular species from extinction. It is a foregone conclusion that next year's quota will be smaller than this year's but Maltese fishermen will be badly affected if fishing for this lucrative fish is restricted.
EU fisheries ministers, in Luxembourg for their monthly meeting, yesterday, gave the European Commission their consent to negotiate next years' blue fin tuna quotas on their behalf at next month's meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in Morocco.
But, for the first time, the mandate given by the EU ministers includes the possibility of a moratorium.
When asked specifically about the potential for a moratorium, the present EU Fisheries Council president, French Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier, said that "the mandate of the Commission adopted by EU ministers does not exclude this scenario".
If no ban is enforced, the Morocco meeting will decide the EU's 2009 quota together with other non-EU partners. The Commission will then distribute the quota among the member states that catch the fish, such as Malta, France, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.
The mandate, agreed upon by the ministers, pushes for the final agreement to "take into account scientific advice; the balancing capacity of fishing fleets and tuna farms with the availability of the resource; revising technical measures such as shortening the fishing season and pushing for a stronger control system for the whole fishery".
EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg warned that blue fin tuna fishing had to be controlled adding that "time is running out to save the blue fin tuna stock from collapse".
Dr Borg said that through this new mandate the EU will be "able to champion bold and decisive measures" at next month's meeting.
According to their latest stock assessment, published this month, ICCAT scientists gave their strongest indictment of the fishery - now dwindling at only a third of its spawning biomass compared to 30 years ago - and reported that a moratorium would help save the species from collapse.
Malta was represented at the meeting by Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino.