UK Urges Crackdown On Bluefin Tuna Fishingff

The European commission needs to take action against countries involved in the illegal over-fishing of endangered blue-fin tuna, the UK's fisheries minister, Ben Bradshaw, said.

Mr. Bradshaw said he fully supported curbs on excessive catches on conservation grounds, such as the EU quota cuts imposed on UK herring and mackerel fleets that had broken the rules.

Mr. Bradshaw was speaking at talks in a Luxembourg chateau where EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg set out the need for a comprehensive assault on the culture of over-fishing.

The commission says fishermen who ignore agreed catch quotas limits are pushing depleted stocks of major species even closer to extinction.

As a result, each year quotas are reduced in a bid to give fish stocks time to revive.

But every year some fishermen struggling to maintain their livelihoods take in more fish than they log in port - making the situation even worse.

UK and Irish fleets have been accused of breaching quotas for herring and mackerel, although neither species is close to extinction.

In contrast, said Mr. Bradshaw, massive French over-fishing of bluefin tuna has been virtually ignored.

”The bluefin tuna quota was over-fished in 2005 and 2006 and yet there have been no penalties - and now a new attempt to set a new quota has, not for the first time, been put off,” said a UK government official.

French fishermen are thought to have taken 40% more tuna than their allowance in 2005 and 30% more last year.

The official added that there was a feeling that “some member states are being treated differently from others”.

In a new attempt to protect fish stocks, the commission is proposing to clamp down on the dumping of dead fish back in the sea.

According to a commission report: “Unwanted catches and discards represent a direct threat to the sustainability of European fisheries, as most of the fish and organisms discarded do not survive.”

Fishermen off the west of Ireland and Scotland are throwing back up to 90% of the fish they catch - either because they are too small or because the haul exceeds agreed EU quota limits.

And a 2005 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that more than 1.3 million tons of fish a year were being thrown back into the North Atlantic - 13% of overall catches.

New rules expected to be tabled next year include incentives for fishermen to invest in the most appropriate fishing gear, and an obligation to land all fish caught.

Mr Borg aid the exact arrangements for curbing discards would have to be worked out in conjunction with the EU’s annual catch allowances and national quotas.