Management of bluefin tuna is entrusted to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), an intergovernmental organisation in which the European Union is an active and influential member. However, with this year’s ‘recovery plan’ still allowing legal fishing at 47 per cent above the upper sustainable limit, according to Greenpeace which believes that ICCAT’s current policies are putting the species at risk of extinction.

'Oversized industrial fishing fleets are putting bluefin at risk of disappearing altogether,' said Francois Provost, Greenpeace international oceans campaigner. 'Governments should establish fully protected marine reserves on the species’ spawning grounds to start giving a chance for the population to recover.'

Since 2006, ICCAT’s own scientists have been ringing the alarm bell on the dire state of the bluefin tuna stock. They have advised not to fish above a maximum of 15,000 tonnes, and to protect the species’ spawning grounds during the crucial months of May and June.

'It’s time to take management of bluefin tuna away from ICCAT before it is too late,' said John Hocevar, Oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, who is travelling on the Rainbow Warrior. 'We want to see the Obama administration and other influential governments end international trade in this endangered species.'

Greenpeace has just completed a monitoring survey of the Central Mediterranean purse seine fishing grounds. Preliminary findings show that after over a decade of massive overfishing, illegal catches are still a huge problem across the Mediterranean region.

Greenpeace advocates the creation of a network of no-take marine reserves, protecting 40 per cent of the world’s oceans, as the long-term solution to the overfishing of tuna and other species, and the recovery of our overexploited oceans.

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