Major tuna fishing nation Spain and key tuna market Japan have jointly voiced in favour of majority to back closing of the Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna fishery until it can be brought under control and establishing protected areas in the main breeding grounds. At the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona the government and NGO members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have voted in favour of the ban.
They have called for catch quotas to be nearly halved in line with scientific advice and for permanent fishing bans for May and June covering the entire spawning season. Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries in WWF’s Mediterranean office, informed that the message to close the fishery now is necessary or have few fish and no fishery into the future is now coming from scientists, from consumers, from communities and from countries.
The motion increases the pressure on International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which decides on the future of the fishery in November. It is said that the ICCAT scientists last month warned the Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna population was on the brink of collapse. Dr Tudela said that ICCAT needs to heed the claim from the international community to save the Mediterannean Bluefin Tuna.
