Conservationists say tuna pen sightings raise questions over legality of catches

The Biological Conservation Research Foundation (BICREF) has said it has sighted tuna pens still being tagged on to Maltese coastal waters as recently as Sunday 27th June.

The tuna fishing season was closed by the European Commission on the 9 June after tuna quotas were fished almost within days of the opening of the tuna season.

“BICREF wonders how this could still be if tuna fishing by purse seiners, for tuna penning too, by EU had been stopped on the 9th of June because it was indicated that the EU member states had already reached their respective quotas,” BICREF stated.

“BICREF has been advocating for caution and conservation management for this bluefin tuna fisheries since 2000. It is sad to note that after so many years too little and too late is being done to conserve this species and the sustainable artisanal fishermen communities.”

The group said Bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean has been clearly shown to require closer monitoring and enforcement of regulations to make sure responsible and sustainable fishing might slow down the rate of loss of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean spawning hot spots.

BICREF is the latest organisation to raise questions over the legality of Maltese tuna catches.

Yesterday rural affairs minister George Pullicino denounced the direct actions carried out by Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Maltese tuna ranchers, calling the groups ‘private armies’. “These organisations have no right to take the law in their hands and it is clear that these fishing operations must have greater security,” Pullicino was quoted as saying.

The Sea Shepherd group, using its Dutch-registered vessel Steve Irwin, managed to cut open a tuna cage and free 700-800 bluefin which it said were mostly juveniles and that the fish had been caught after the official closure of the season. It also claimed the fish it freed exceeded the quota. “Sea Shepherd holds the position that this operation by these two vessels was illegal,” said Captain Paul Watson, whose group regularly takes on whaling ships. The owner of the tuna farming company whose boat was involved in skirmish with the conservationists, claimed the damages from the action amounted to over €1 million.

In another action, unrelated to the Sea Shepherd’s Operation Blue Rage, Greenpeace were met with minimum force by the Armed Forces of Malta. Greenpeace activists spent two hours engaged in non-violent direct action to free endangered bluefin tuna from a large cage, and met resistance from the AFM through the “firing of flares from the fishing vessel and the use of water cannons”.