WWF calls for caution over increase in bluefina tuna quota

Global conservation organisation WWF (World Wildlife Fund) called for caution over calls by agriculture parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes for a substantial increase in Malta’s Bluefin tuna quota.

Galdes’ request followed a recent report published by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna’s (ICCAT) Standing Committee on Research and Statistics that bluefin tuna populations are recovering. 

“The stock is no longer at risk of collapse, and this is a direct result of the current recovery plan.,” WWF Mediterranean’s Head of Fisheries Sergi Tudela said. “However, strong concerns remain, particularly regarding the traceability of the fish.”

“In order to ensure a sustainable fishery reliable data is important, but adequate means to fight Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU) are also crucial”, Gemma Quilez Badia, WWF’s scientist attending the stock assessment meeting in Madrid said.
The current recovery plan includes the Bluefin Tuna Catch Document (BCD), which aims to ensure full traceability from catch to market. However, the WWF said that the current BCD system remains “plagued with shortcomings that compromise its ability to keep illegal bluefin products out of the market” and that the current BCD does not meet the minimum standards required under EU regulations.

“Reforming ICCAT’s BCD is a task of the utmost urgency to eradicate the illegal practices that have been plaguing this fishery, by ensuring only legal fish enters the global markets,” the WWF said.
“We might be very close to what would be a resounding success in the history of fisheries, the dream of a sustainable bluefin tuna fishery in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Atlantic –let’s hope the lessons of the past have been fully learned and that –at least this time- history doesn’t repeat itself.”

However, the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers (FMAP) joined Galdes in calling for an increase in Malta’s Bluefin tuna quota. They said that gradually increasing the catch quota over a period of years will allow the tuna population to keep on recovering.

“The present assessment has concluded that the stock of Bluefin tuna is looking very good and that even a strong increase in the total allowable catch will not affect the recovery plan which is presently in place,” the FMAP said in a statement. “

“The key word here is sustainability, not only in a biological sense, but also in an economic one.”

The total allowable catch for 2015 will be set at this year’s ICCAT annual meeting between 10-17 November.