The European Commission closed the industrial tuna fishing season early (June 16th as opposed to end of month), provoking a wave of protest from Europe's leading fishing nations. With quotas nearly full, and substantial illegal fishing reported again this year, the EU executive said that fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic needed to be halted early to protect the species.
The move targets fishing by purse seiners, which account for 70% of all bluefin tuna hauls. Spanish ships are allowed to fish until June 23rd.
The commission said an early closure was all the more necessary this year because the purse seiner fleet had grown substantially since 2007 despite tougher international quotas and EU funds available for reducing fleets. "The commission is determined to use all necessary means to prevent a recurrence of the substantial overfishing seen in 2007" it said.
Illegal fishing for bluefin tuna is still rampant in the Med. Last week WWF and Greenpeace caught Italian planes spotting tuna schools from the air in the central Mediterranean. Spotter planes are illegal in the area, as they give 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.
Since the Mediterranean tuna fishing season opened at the beginning of May, WWF calculated that over 10,000 breeding bluefin tunas were caught every day by the industrial fishing fleet.
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For more information:
- EU tightens controls over BFT fisheries
- WWF report on BFT overfishing in the Med
