International environmental organisation Greenpeace yesterday called on the Maltese authorities to investigate a Libyan ship which offloaded 96 tonnes of red tuna at Valletta’s Magazine Wharf on Tuesday.

In a statement issued yesterday, the organisation said the large catch was landed in Malta three months after the season for fishing the species with long lines, such as those used by the Al Dafnia, had closed – leading the organisation to file a complaint over the incident with the European Commission yesterday.

Greenpeace said yesterday it had provided proof to the EC that the Libyan vessel, the Al Dafnia, had illegally caught the tuna and offloaded the catch in Valletta.

Contacted by The Malta Independent yesterday, the Rural Affairs and Environment Ministry said it had carried out its own investigation into the matter and found the landing had formed part of a perfectly legal transhipment of tuna.

Both vessels involved in the transhipment were, in fact, in possession of original transhipment certificates from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), issued by an authorised Libyan official. The certificates were also issued before the season had closed.

The government has contacted both the European Commission as well as ICCAT so as to clarify the matter, but, as far as the Maltese authorities are concerned, the transhipment is on the up and up.

The 96-tonne catch is scheduled to leave Malta on Sunday.

With the transhipment having been cleared and legal, for all intents and purposes the government has no further investigations to undertake. If there is indeed a problem with the certificates, the matter would be one for ICCAT, as the certification body, to deal with.

The Maltese authorities had followed international regulations to the letter and as such cannot be held in any way culpable for allowing the landing.

Greenpeace, however, doubts the certificates, although issued by an authorised Libyan official, were issued strictly in line with the regulations.

The organisation yesterday stated "It is very improbable that the red tuna on board the Al Dafnia had been captured before the closing of the season. It simply does not make sense from an economic point of view that the catch was kept on board for three months, and inspectors in Malta should clarify the origin of the tuna."

Greenpeace adds, "There are more than sufficient reasons to stop the boat and carry out an extensive investigation into the origin of the catch."