16/11/2005 - Rome, Italy – Massive overfishing, management abuses and the catch of illegal and undersize tunas in 2005 has resulted in the worst year on record for bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean, according to WWF.

Hundreds of demonstrators from WWF and the tuna trap producers organization (OPP51) took to the streets during the International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) annual meeting in Seville, Spain (14- 20 November) to urge members of this fisheries management body to take action to save bluefin tuna from extinction.

Widespread management violations in the Mediterranean tuna fishery include huge catches of tuna far in excess of agreed fishing quotas and the illegal use of spotting airplanes, outside of the fishing season, to search for tunas. In addition, tuna farming – the fattening of wild tuna in cages – is spiralling out of control and hastening the decline in Mediterranean tuna populations.

WWF estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna were caught in 2004. This volume greatly exceeds the 32,000 tonne quota allocated by ICCAT. The 2005 season, still underway, is expected to see even greater levels of overfishing.

“Libya is a particularly worrying case,” said Sergi Tudela, Fisheries Coordinator at WWF's Mediterranean office based in Italy. “This North African country’s annual tuna quota is 1,400 tonnes, but Libya has so far this year taken more than 9,000 tonnes. This illegal catch has been caged in Libya, Tunisia and Spain.”

The massive overfishing of tuna in the Mediterranean is also putting the livelihoods of traditional tuna trap fishermen at risk. Tuna traps are a selective, fixed and traditional fishing gear that maintain around 500 jobs in Spain and another 800 in Morocco. In the tuna trap sector, bluefin tuna catches have dropped 80 per cent over the last 5 years.

“We have now reached crisis point for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean,” Tudela added. “Current levels of fishing are 2.5 times higher than the bluefin tuna populations can sustain. This ongoing mismanagement will lead to the commercial extinction of bluefin tuna.”

WWF urges ICCAT members, meeting in Spain this week, to agree to reduce the bluefin tuna fishing season by an additional two weeks. In addition, a compulsory observer programme should be put in place to monitor the activities of the tuna purse seine fishing fleets. WWF urges the EU to promote and implement these measures.

“We are witnessing the disappearance of one of the most important fisheries in the World," added Tudela. "If the EU and ICCAT really want to save the oldest fishery in the Western world, they must act now.”