Bluefin tuna. (Photo: FishBase)
SPAIN
Thursday, August 14, 2014, 22:00 (GMT + 9)
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA), through the General Secretariat of Fisheries, complained to the European Commission (EC) about illegal fishing of bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) performed by a recreational craft from Gibraltar at a mile south of Punta Carnero, on the western boundary of the Bay of Algeciras.
This activity was detected last weekend by personnel of the Maritime Service of the Guardia Civil. Gibraltar does not have a legislation regulating recreational fishing or a bluefin tuna catch quota and so the Spanish Government considers that this fact represents a serious breach of international fishing regulations and of the European Union (EU).
The bluefin tuna fishery is the most controlled one in the world and it is regulated by the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
In Spain, recreational and sport fishing is assigned a reservation quota that allowed the capture of this species with this mode from 15 June to 9 July, when a precautionary closure of the fishery was established.
Tuna fishing was finally closed on 24 July, following confirmation of the complete consumption of the allocated quota.
"That quota is used only in the event of accidental death of the bluefin tuna because Spanish law requires the release of the specimen if it is caught," said the MAGRAMA.
The Ministry notes that in in 2006 the ICCAT adopted the Bluefin Tuna Recovery Plan, whose launch helped to recover the resource and its biomass. Therefore, it is confident that the appropriate measures to prevent and punish such actions in the future are taken.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation sent a complaint verbal note to the British Embassy in Madrid. In it, it protests about the fact that the two ships of the Gibraltar police and a patrol of the Royal Navy prevented the Rio Cedena patrol from exercising its jurisdiction over a Gibraltarian vessel fishing illegally for bluefin tuna in the Bay of Algeciras.
For the Spanish government, the British troops that hampered the Guardia Civil’s monitoring activity helped to protect the development of illegal fishing.
"The Government of Spain has no doubt about the limits of its territory and, therefore, the Spanish ships will continue performing their duties in Spanish waters," ensured MAGRAMA.