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THE European Commission today decided to close the fishery for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean for 2007.
On the basis of the catch returns received from the Member States to date, the EU 2007 quota for bluefin tuna of 16,779.5 tonnes has been exhausted the Commission said and the whole EU fishery must close.
This closure concerns Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain as the other two Member States involved, Italy and France, closed their own fisheries in July and August respectively. The Commission says it has has noted failings in the reporting of catch data necessary to monitor the uptake of the EU quota in real time. It shortly intends to take measures against such failings. The Commission will also come forward with measures in time for the 2008 fishery to prevent the problems experienced this year.
Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Joe Borg commented: "Clearly there are problems both of over fishing a stock already threatened with collapse and of equity between the Member States concerned. As is its duty, the Commission will do all it can to address these issues urgently."
Seven EU Member States are involved in the fishery for bluefin tuna, namely Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The EU quota of 16,779.5 tonnes was allocated by ICCAT (The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) at a meeting in Tokyo in January and divided between the Member States concerned using an agreed allocation key. Italy closed its fishery on July 24 and France closed its fishery on August 27.
In the case of Member States which have not yet caught their quota, there are provisions in EU legislation to compensate the parties concerned in subsequent years. Mechanisms also exist in EU rules for deduction of over fished quota by the Member States concerned. As regards the overall EU quota, the ICCAT recovery plan contains a payback mechanism for parties which over fish. The ICCAT compliance committee meets in November, to establish final catch figures for all contracting parties for the 2007 season. Once ICCAT decides on the action to be taken on quota overshooting, the Commission will make its own proposal for payback and compensation within the EU. The Commission will seek to ensure that any Member State that is penalised by this early closure of the 2007 fishery will be compensated in future fishing possibilities.
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