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Bluefin Tuna Disappearing from Mediterranean Sea
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Wild populations of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea have plummeted in the past decade, conservationists told the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee on Tuesday. Bluefin tuna are almost completely gone from some of the Mediterranean's oldest fishing grounds, WWF said, and new data indicates the species is in serious peril.
"The situation is alarming," said Roberto Mielgo Bregazzi, a fishing expert with WWF, which presented the data to the committee. "The Mediterranean bluefin tuna species is under threat and many jobs in the tuna fishery are being jeopardized."
The data show particular concern for the area around Spain's Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. Catches in the area are down to just 15 per cent of what they were just a decade ago.
In 1995, more than 14,000 metric tons of tuna were caught in the area - that figure fell to 2,270 tons this year.
Bluefin tuna farms in the Mediterranean have also experience substantial decline, WWF said, another sign the species is in sharp decline.
Unlike aquaculture, where fish are bred and reared in captivity, tuna farming uses fish captured in the wild. From 2006's catches of wild Mediterranean tuna, some 22,520 tons have been put in captivity and farmed, a 25 percent reduction compared to 30,000 tons farmed last year.
Tuna farming is a booming, but unsustainable, industry in the Meditteranean. (Photo by Jorge Sierra courtesy WWF-Canon)
Six Spanish tuna ranches have already ceased operating altogether because there were simply no more tuna, WWF said.
"We fear for our jobs," said Marta Crespo Márquez, director general of a traditional tuna fishing association in Spain. "The EU has still not reacted to repeated warnings from scientists and we are looking to our elected representatives to take their responsibilities seriously."
The public hearing with the fisheries committee featured a range of stakeholders, all of whom agreed that urgent action is needed to stop illegal overfishing and to find a way to sustainably fish the lucrative species.
But how to best do that is a source of considerable debate. Bluefin tuna live on the two coasts of the Atlantic, and have been traditionally exploited by European fishermen.
According to scientific experts present at the hearing, France, Italy and Spain together make up 50 percent of worldwide bluefin tuna catches, while around 80 percent of the Eastern Atlantic stock is caught in the Mediterranean.
The economics of the issue present a significant challenge to conservationists - the demand for bluefin tuna continues to grow and the trade can be highly lucrative.
And new technologies and fishing methods in the Mediterranean, in particular the practice of fattening tuna in fish farms, has caused prices to drop and prompted fishermen to increase catches to make up the difference.
Enrique Rodríguez Marín, an expert at the Spanish Oceanographic Institute, said the result is that some "50 000 tons of tuna are caught every year, while about 25 000 tons would be sustainable."
The committee discussed a range of ideas to reverse the decline, including raising the minimum size limits, introducing age limits of catches, and closing tuna spawning areas to fishing.
WWF echoed suggestions to close spawning grounds and increase size limits and also urged the European Commission to implement improved monitoring of fishing and farming activities and to call for the presence of observers on board all tuna vessels and in tuna farms
The meeting came as EU officials are preparing for an upcoming meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas - known as ICCAT.
WWF wants the EU to push for the stricter protection of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna at ICCAT's annual meeting, which will be held in November in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
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