07
Oct 2008 - Rome, Italy - Italy’s widespread
disregard of fisheries management rules
for Mediterranean bluefin tuna has been
confirmed by a new WWF report – Lifting
the lid on Italy’s bluefin tuna fishery
– surveying Italian catches, markets and
transfers to fish farms.
The independent and
exhaustive report contradicts Italian government
claims that the early closure of the Mediterranean
bluefin tuna fishery this year meant Italy
would not reach its tuna quota, finding
instead that the 2008 catch was a minimum
700 tonnes over quota.
This comes on top of
findings that Italian fishers were 40 per
cent over quota on the imperilled fishery
for 2007, more than five times in excess
of the officially admitted over-run of just
327 tonnes.
The survey was conducted
for WWF by ATRT, the consultancy which earlier
this year reported that Italy was Europe’s
leader in fishing overcapacity for Mediterranean
bluefin tuna, with an industrial purse seine
fleet capable of catching double the national
tuna quota.
“Fishing for bluefin
tuna in the Mediterranean is unsustainable
and totally out of control. In light of
the data in WWF’s latest report, the Italian
government now has all the elements to combat
this widespread system of illegal fishing,”
said Michele Candotti, CEO of WWF Italy.
Today’s publication
of WWF’s report Lifting the lid on Italy’s
bluefin tuna fishery follows an expert performance
review of the International Commission for
the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)
– ordered by the commission itself – labelling
the conduct of the fishery “an international
disgrace” just last month.
ICCAT’s scientific committee
also just published last week its verdict
on the Mediterranean bluefin tuna stock,
confirming that some 61,000 tonnes of the
fish were taken from the Mediterranean in
2007 – twice the legal quota – and that
the spawning stock is in crisis, being only
36 per cent of its levels thirty years ago.
WWF will present its
new report to the Italian fisheries ministry
as well as to European Commission fisheries
officials, urging prompt investigations
into its findings.
The report also details
how tuna fishing flotillas dominated by
Italian vessels were assisted by illegal
spotter aircraft operating from Italian
airfields.
Other illegal or unrecorded
diversions of the Italian tuna catch in
both 2007 and 2008 occurred into fish farms
in Croatia, Malta and Tunisia – in addition
to unrecorded domestic consumption and mislabelled
exports.
Italy’s official fleet
figures of 185 vessels involved in tuna
fishing and ranching are also rubbished
by the report.
“Italian flagged vessels
identified as positively or probably having
been directly involved in bluefin tuna fishing
and ranching during the 2008 fishing season
inside the Mediterranean Sea in this report
amounted to 283 units, of which 27 are longliners,
162 purse seiners, 73 trawlers and 21 tugboats,
a sum much higher than official records
showed,” the report said.
“Of these, 47 vessels
were not equipped with vessel monitoring
systems; 160 did not have fishing licenses;
and 82 vessels were unregistered to ICCAT
in 2008.”
WWF has welcomed the
support of the independent review into ICCAT’s
performance for an immediate closure of
the fishery as a necessary step to avoiding
its likely collapse.
“Italy’s illegal activity
in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery
is not just a threat to this magnificent
species – but also jeopardises the future
of those trying to fish this resource in
a sustainable and legal way,” added Candotti.
ICCAT Contracting Parties
will meet in Marrakech, Morocco, from 17-24
November 2008 when fresh management decisions
on the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery
will be taken. WWF is advocating an immediate
closure – until the fishery is brought under
control and sustainable management measures
are put in place.
