Tuna farming in Italian island is one of the biggest where the almost every day five tons of thawed herring or mackerel were dumped into the water to feed more than 250 tons of giant bluefin tuna for fattening. Later, this prized possession will be sold to Japan, where it is highly in demand for sushi and sashimi.
Environmentalist says that this kind of farming depleting the stocks and rapidly driving bluefin tuna on the verge of extinct. Tuna farming is rampant in the Mediterranean Sea. In Norway and Germany the fisheries have been collapsed long ago. Now the threat of collapse is lurking on tuna in Mediterranean as the stock is depleting due to caging the tuna which eventually stop them to spawn.
It is true that the salty, warm waters of the Mediterranean are one of only two places where the Atlantic bluefin spawn. The authority has implemented quotas for bluefin fishing but they are much higher than what the scientists have recommended and are poorly enforced.
According to World Wildlife Fund the countries around the Mediterranean have exported more than their allocated quotas. Environmentalists say that using of too many boats and distinct methods bringing the devastation quickly. Besides illegal boats the fishermen also used airplanes to spot the school of fish and catches immature fish.
Burkay Gokgoz, manager of the Akua Italia farm, denied the criticism, saying that there companies like his operate under legitimate conditions and buy only mature fish and that too within quota. He added that the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas should implement the quotas strictly.
