The tuna trade contributes €100 million per year to Malta's economy, an unpublished report has claimed.

The tuna industry is expected to publish the report in the coming weeks and provide the government with ammunition to fight an EU proposal to ban the international trade of bluefin tuna.

The tuna trade is concentrated in the Mediterranean where the spawning grounds are located. Malta is a major player in the international network where millions are earned by a handful of major players each year.

While Malta's fleet is small compared with other Mediterranean countries, the country remains the global capital of tuna farms, with Azzopardi Fisheries having the largest tuna farming operation in the Mediterranean. Thousands of small tuna are brought to Malta in cages by foreign fishermen to be fattened and later exported to the Japanese sushi market.

Following warnings from international environmental organisations that bluefin tuna are on the brink of extinction, the EU has increased efforts to control the exploitation of fish stocks by its Mediterranean members.

The government is preparing to oppose a possible EU proposal to ban the international trade of bluefin tuna that would deal a severe blow to the industry.

The operators are refuting claims that tuna stocks are on the brink of extinction, saying the number of tuna being quoted is inflated.

Speaking to The Sunday Times on behalf of the newly formed Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers, Carmelo Agius said: "The scientific data used to arrive at some of the conclusions about the level of exploitation are considered flawed as they are not deriving from scientifically recognised publications."

While making the argument that the report will show the catch is contributing around €100 million annually to the Maltese economy alone, the industry is also arguing that the catch is not jeopardising declining tuna stocks in the wild. The Sunday Times has not yet seen the report.

"As far as the North Atlantic bluefin tuna stock is concerned, there is the western stock and the eastern stock. The Food and Agriculture Organisation classifies the western stock as overexploited and the eastern stock (which is the one that is fished in the Mediterranean) as fully exploited. The latter is therefore not classified as overexploited and we believe that the stringent controls introduced since 2002 should ensure the long term sustainability of the fishery," Prof. Agius said.

However, Greenpeace spokesman Sebastian Losada told The Sunday Times this was a typical approach from the industry so that it could continue with business as usual. He said it is time for Malta to understand that tuna is a shared resource:

"Other Mediterranean countries also have farms but Malta has grown to such an extent that it needs everybody else's tuna. This is unreasonable. When you have access to a resource you can benefit from, you also have to act responsibly and respect the best available scientific knowledge."

The environmental lobby is not the only one expressing doubts on the industry's ability to continue its operations in a sustainable manner. In its latest assessment, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), states:

"It is apparent that the total allowable catch is not respected and is largely ineffective in controlling overall catch although enforced control seems to have deployed in the Mediterranean Sea... The available information indicates that the current fishing mortality rate is more than three times the level which would permit the stock to stabilise."

ICCAT is an inter-governmental fishery organisation and it compiles fishery statistics from members. Its research committee, consisting of international scientific experts, also concluded that the decline in tuna stocks has to be addressed.

While the tuna industry is saying that such conclusions are based on unreliable data, ICCAT said that for the eastern stock, especially in the Mediterranean, substantial under-reporting is evident.

Last month, 20 tuna weighing a total of 2.5 tonnes with a market value of €50,000 were released into the open sea from a tuna pen off Delimara after the Moroccan vessel that had caught them was found to have exceeded its quota.

International environmental organisations Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have produced countless reports showing that tuna stocks are on the brink of extinction. According to them, the time to save the tuna is now or never.

The director of WWF's European policy office, Tony Long, said: "It would be scandalous if the European Commission were to allow the region's most emblematic marine species associated with a 2,000-year-old tradition to go extinct on its watch."