Italian and French fishermen based in Malta for the tuna fishing season yesterday suspended a threat to blockade Maltese ports in protest over the European Commission’s early closing of the tuna purse seining season.
Contacted yesterday, fishermen’s representatives confirmed they had been in contact with the secretary of Maritime and Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, and that he had agreed to meet representatives of the Malta-based fishermen in Brussels on Monday morning.
Fishermen had threatened closing off either the Valletta or Marsaxlokk ports unless Dr Borg agreed to an urgent meeting with representatives of the Malta-based fishermen.
Representatives confirmed a group of six to eight fishermen would be travelling to Brussels for the meeting.
On Tuesday about 300 Italian and French fishermen staged a protest in Ta’ Xbiex outside the EU Representation building, and threatened to take further action over the Commission’s claim that quotas allotted to individual purse seining operations had been reached.
The European Commission last Thursday announced the season’s early closing effective from 16 June - some two weeks earlier than the previously established 30 June closing date.
In reaching the decision, the EC cited it deemed “quotas allocated to them will shortly have been exhausted”.
But the Malta-based fishermen insist they were ready to provide Dr Borg with all verifications necessary to prove they had not yet breached their quotas.
Issuing a statement on Tuesday evening, Dr Borg argued the EC had in its possession “all data needed to establish that the EU purse seine fleet has now exhausted its quota”, adding that “our decision is based on the most detailed analysis of the fishery, using multiple sources of information which have been cross-checked against one another on a daily basis”.
Dr Borg remarked that yet again this year “the fishery has been marred by countless failures to properly implement the rules which have been agreed at international level to manage the blue-fin tuna stock sustainably”.
He cited that the EC knew of eight French purse seine vessels which have spent up to 21 days fishing since the start of the season, but have so far declared no catches.
Moreover, Dr Borg stated, “At this moment in time, half the French fleet have caught nothing according to official figures, while the other half declare that they have caught over 90 per cent of their individual quotas, although all the vessels show similar activity rates.
“We are also aware of eight Italian purse seine vessels which, according to official figures, have overshot their quota by between 100 and 240 per cent.
“In addition, we have now definitely identified at least eight spotter planes out of possibly more than 20 which have worked, and continue to work, in coordination with EU vessels to help them identify blue-fin tuna shoals, even though the use of spotter planes is completely illegal.”
On the request put forward from some member states – namely Italy, France and Spain – for the Commission to suspend the early closure, Dr Borg said a number of failures of implementation and control since the beginning of the season have made it difficult for these member states to monitor their own fleets accurately.
Such implementation failures include, according to Dr Borg, “Unreliable catch declarations, failure to respect reporting deadlines, delays in submission of fishing plans, and failure to communicate satellite data on the movements of the vessels concerned”.
“The Commission,” Dr Borg added, “therefore cannot seriously be expected to consider their very poorly based request to suspend its well-founded decision.”