Fishing boats set out Monday in good weather to haul in bluefin tuna here on the first day of a shortened Mediterranean bluefin fishing season.
The Maltese longliners join fishing trawlers from seven other EU member states who together will share out a quota of almost 8,000 tons of the prized but endangered food fish, in the world's premier bluefin fishing grounds.
A delicacy in Japanese sushi and sashimi (maguro), bluefin tuna fetches hundreds of euros per kilo in Tokyo--the world's top market--where prices are now down from when a single bluefin tuna could sell at auction for over 1.5m U.S. dollars (1.09m euros), last year.
This year's short fishing season in the EU is part of a recovery plan agreed in 2006 at international level to bring back the bluefin tuna stock to sustainable levels. Overfished for decades, the eastern Atlantic (including the Med) bluefin tuna could disappear from EU waters if not protected, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) says.
Other measures in the 15-year international recovery plan include the total allowable catch quota, shared out among eight EU members Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and now Croatia; and minimum size limits on fish taken, of 30 kg for industrial and 8 kg for artisanal fishing.
This size is still small enough for the tuna farming business that will grow the fish before marketing them but is a drain on reproduction, critics say, as immature fish are removed from spawning grounds. Fully grown bluefin tuna weigh around 680kg /1500 pounds.
The EU has offered its assurances on the strict controls in place to police overfishing. The European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki said Friday: "The EU has been working relentlessly to protect bluefin tuna: we have reduced our fishing fleet, we have tightened controls and we have played a consistently active role within the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which is responsible for managing this fishing. This helped bring the Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna stock back from the brink of extinction. I am confident that we are on the right track."
The eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna population had dropped up to 90 percent below the low levels of the early '70s as a result of overfishing, according to various estimates, by 2008. But ICCAT estimates say that as of 2012, stocks had recovered slightly, as additional scientific recommendations were gradually adopted.
Presently, enforcement of catch limit quotas is accomplished through the use of a control and inspection program involving patrol vessels, aircraft and a satellite based control system, an EU Commission press release said, involving the coordination of member states, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), the EU Commission and the ICCAT.
The Maltese are allowed a total catch of 161 tons this year until June 24 when the season ends for large vessels, according to the EU rules.
Although its own fishing industry is small, Malta has six international companies operating nine different fish farming sites around the islands. Its fish farms exported upwards of 100m euros of product in 2012, according to local media.
The non-industrial Maltese fishing fleet is the only one in the EU still using traditional long-line fishing methods rather than industrial purse seiners.
