As the European Union struggles to achieve a balance between the conservation of a vanishing species and commercial fishing interests, fisheries ministers meeting this week have provisionally halved the bluefin tuna quotas of all EU member states until the definitive quota to be allotted to each member state has been established.

As such, Malta’s quota has been temporarily halved from 344 tonnes to 173 tonnes.

The move, although provisional, is bound to catalyse a vociferous reaction from Malta’s tuna fishermen, who have already been outspoken against any initiative aimed at limiting their catches.

At the end of November, a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in Dubrovnik, Croatia proposed a 15-year plan aimed at gradually reducing allowable tuna catches in the Mediterranean from the current 32,000 tonnes to 25,500 tonnes by 2010.

In addition to the reduction of quotas, the Dubrovnik meeting also called for a number of technical measures aimed at limiting the decline of the species.

These include an extension of the closed season for bluefin tuna and a ban on large-scale pelagic (open sea) long-line vessels between 1 June and 31 December. Similar restrictions are also to be introduced in respect of purse seine fishing, bait boats and pelagic trawlers.

The ICCAT has also called for an extension of the ban, from the month of June to the whole of the year, on the use of aircraft to spot the aggregation of tuna.

Recreational fishing will also be limited to one bluefin tuna per expedition, and there will also be a ban on the transhipment of tuna at sea for purse seiners. Additionally, all landings of bluefin tuna or transfers to cages will be subject to prior notification and strict control measures.

Controversially for small-scale fishermen, minimum landing sizes have been increased substantially from 10 kilos to 30 kilos.

The EU’s tuna fishing industry has labelled the measures as being exceedingly prohibitory to the practice of the trade, while environmental organisations have deemed the measures as being too weak to address the full extent of the problem.

Last week, at the insistence of Malta and Italy, EU ministers rejected the ICCAT’s decisions and the debate will be at the fore of the ICCAT’s next meeting in January in Tokyo.

It is expected that the final quota for the whole of the EU will be hammered out at that meeting. The overall quota, once established, will be divided proportionately between the seven member states with tuna fishing industries – Malta, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.

The technical measures on the fishing of tuna proposed by the ICCAT will be discussed by the EU’s Fisheries Council by March with a view to adopting temporary measures. It is expected that the measures will be finalised by June, when they are to be implemented.

But in anticipation of the setting of definitive quotas for 2007, and apparently in anticipation of reduced quotas for 2007, the EU Council has introduced temporary quotas for the EU states, which reflect just half last year’s allotments.

There are as follows: Malta 172.8 tonnes, Italy 2,440, France 3,091, Spain 3,133, Portugal 295, Greece 161.5 and Cyprus 74.4 tonnes.

Referring to the temporary rejection of the ICCAT’s recommendations, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino, who represented Malta at the Fisheries Council meeting, stressed the government’s commitment to safeguarding the interests of Maltese fishermen and of tuna fishing, which he said is their main activity.

He also stressed that, as opposed to industrial fishing using purse seiners, Maltese fishermen have traditionally used artisan

methods that cause the least possible harm to the sustainability of tuna in the Mediterranean.

Referring to the Dubrovnik meeting’s conclusions, Malta’s EU Commissioner Joe Borg, who is tasked with the EU’s fishing policies, commented: “The agreed package will admittedly lead to a number of short-term costs and sacrifices for the fleets involved. However, I strongly believe that they are necessary to avoid the risk of stock collapse and to secure the long-term future of the fishermen concerned.

“The 15-year plan adopted by ICCAT will introduce a broad range of measures, such as reduced catch possibilities, closed seasons, capacity monitoring, increased landing sizes and substantially reinforced control and inspections.”