A French purse seiner rolling up a bluefin tuna in the south of Formentera, Balearic Islands, Spain (Photo: Keith Ellen Bogen/Oceana)
EUROPEAN UNIONFriday, November 16, 2012, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
The group Ecologists in Action is satisfied with the European Union (EU) keeping the fishing quota for bluefin tuna in the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas(ICCAT) meeting, which is being carried out until the next Monday in Agadir, Morocco.
The NGO highlights that the EU holds its position "despite the pressure from shortsighted governments as the Spanish one."
The European representatives decided "at the last minute" to defend the upholding of 12,900 annual tonnes of bluefin tuna quotas, despite the fact the Spanish government sought quotas of more than 13,500 tonnes, said the NGO.
It is "a coherent position" to secure the future of a resource that in 2006 was "on the verge of collapse," Ecologists reported in a press release.
Furthermore, the NGO believes that the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Magrama) shows a lack of rigour in its fisheries policy.
"The shortsighted vision of the Ministry has attempted to benefit the fishing industry in the short term at the expense of the future of bluefin tuna and the fishery itself," it added.
Meanwhile, sources in the Secretariat General of Fisheries of Spain told EFE that "signs of stock recovery" of the resource allow for a quota increase.
And Juan Serrano, president of the Bluefin Association of Fisheries, Trade and Consumption, suggested extending the control measures in the Eastern and Western Atlantic in order to obtain similar stock recovery.
Moreover, a debate arose in the Agadir meeting regarding the complaint filed last week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), whereby convenience Panamanian-flagged ships are fishing bluefin and landing it on ports from different countries, such as Japan, Turkey and Morocco, among others, as another commodity, without reporting it to ICCAT.
The NGO’s denunciation came out of the set deadlines and may not result in sanctions.
Anyway, the fishing industry and several governments have accused the WWF of using wrong or completely false data.