France and Italy may face reduced quotas for bluefin tuna, a fish prized by sushi lovers, to punish them for overfishing the vulnerable species this year, EU officials said on Tuesday.
Both countries netted more than their agreed share of the fish, meaning the European Union as a whole exceeded the catch allowed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which oversees tuna fishing.
â€The European Commission has been pretty clear that it's not going to let member states that have overfished get away with it,†one EU diplomat said.
French and Italian overfishing forced the European Commission to ban bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic for the rest of 2007, prompting complaints from other member states.
â€The Spanish complained that the abrupt closure of the bluefin tuna fishery prevented them from catching their full quota and said measures should be taken to prevent that happening again,†one EU official told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU fisheries ministers.
â€The idea is that all those that missed fishing opportunities this year will get compensation. That means a transfer of quota, in tons.â€
Five countries -Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain- stand to gain a higher proportion of the EU quota next year.
Even so, the ICCAT is likely to reduce the EU quota for 2008 because it exceeded its allowance overall.
PRICEY FISH
Bluefin tuna populations have declined alarmingly over recent decades, with their popularity in sushi and sashimi dishes driving demand. In Japan, a single fish can command prices of up to $100,000.
Unlike most tunas, bluefin grow slowly and mature late, making them vulnerable to intensive trawling. Among the ocean’s top predators and fastest swimmers, a bluefin tuna can live for at least 15 years, and even as long as 30 years.
For 2007, EU fleets were allocated a quota of some 16,780 tons in the Mediterranean within the overall ICCAT quota of 29,500 tons. Other countries that trawl these waters for bluefin tuna include Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Japan.
However, experts say wide-scale illegal fishing takes the amount of bluefin tuna actually caught in the Mediterranean to 50,000 tons.