French coastal fishing organisation Plateforme Petite Pêche is calling on artisanal fishermen to fish for bluefin tuna on the 26th May, the day when the fishery opens for the Mediterranean tuna purse seine fleet, as a protest against the management of this resource.
According to Plateforme Petite Pêche, France has a 6026 tonne quota this year, of which 4781 tonnes is allocated to a group of 22 purse seiners.
‘This is a snatch of 80% of the national quota, a grab of a common resource that has been carried out legally for decades by a small circle of millionaire fishermen at the same time as hundreds of artisanal fishermen from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean do not even have the right to target bluefin tuna,’ a spokesman for Plateforme Petite Pêche said.
‘This is the date we have chosen as the artisanal bluefin tuna fishing day, during which we call on artisanal fishermen to make a point of fishing for bluefin tuna.’
PPP’s spokesman commented that it was overfishing in the 2000s that led to a reduction in quotas for everyone – including small-scale line fishermen. Restrictions imposed since 2010 have seen a recovery of bluefin tuna.
‘There has been an increase of almost 3500 tonnes, from 2471 tonnes in 2013 to 6026 tonnes in 2020, almost exclusively for the benefit of purse seiners. A vessel with 150 tonnes of tuna in 2013 now has 380 tonnes – a reward for overfishing.’
Plateforme Petite Pêche is critical of the Mediterranean tuna industry’s model of catching tuna for fattening in cages, a process that requires large volumes of wild-caught small pelagic species.
‘During the coronavirus crisis that we are experiencing, the fishing lobbies shout about their role as the nation’s saviour – yet it is these same lobbies that protect this absurd model of industrial fishing whose sole objective is to enrich a handful of shipowners, without the slightest concern for the environment, for French food security, and even less for the survival of the small-scale artisanal fishing fleet.’
According to Plateforme Petite Pêche, legal action brought in June 2017 to challenge the distribution of quota for bluefin tuna has made no progress over the last three years, during which the organisation claims that the purse seine fleet has been award increased fishing rights while little has gone to the artisanal fleet.
‘This contempt by the state and professional bodies for small-scale artisanal fishing is intolerable,’ Plateforme Petite Pêche’s spokesman said.
‘On 26th May, we encourage all artisanal fishermen, in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean, who catch ultra-fresh fish in a sustainable manner, to this take part in this action to demonstrate as widely as possible the inequality of the distribution of French fishing quotas.’
