Source: Greenpeace Press Release
As European fisheries ministers prepare to meet in Luxembourg, France is resisting calls from scientists and the European Commission to drastically cut fishing quotas for dwindling stocks of bluefin tuna, said Greenpeace. France is hoping to protect about 200 seasonal jobs of which half is filled by low wage African deckhands.
The position of the French government could determine the EU’s ability to put its full weight behind measures to save bluefin tuna from collapse at this year’s meeting of the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in Paris in November.
Greenpeace followed French fisheries minister Bruno Le Maire to the EU meeting in Luxembourg with a specially designed ‘tuna-mobile’. Four activists drove the converted sea-blue mini, baring a life-size bluefin tuna and a fishing net on the roof, to the entrance of the building hosting the ministerial meeting and addressed Le Maire with two megaphones, calling on him to: “save bluefin tunaâ€.
Greenpeace EU oceans policy director Saskia Richartz said: “France is stonewalling scientific evidence on the state of the bluefin tuna stock for the sake of a few industrial ships that are a threat to marine life and sustainable fishing. Around Europe, a handful of people are making big money by hunting bluefin tuna, but the whole industry will collapse if they’re allowed to target areas where tuna assemble to reproduce. If the EU is serious about saving bluefin tuna, it should close the fishery next year. Less strong measures such as halving the quota would give the species only a slim chance of recovery.â€
This year, 17 large French industrial purse seiners, employing only 200 people, raked in 80% of the French catch. Around half the workforce (usually made up of African deckhands) is paid a lump sum of less than €500, while the rest share the spoils from sales of the increasingly rare and increasingly valuable bluefin tuna. Purse seiners are able to wipe out a whole school of bluefin tuna in one clean sweep with their purse-shaped nets and are therefore the primary cause of stock depletion. This destructive fishing ability means that they reached their quota after less than two weeks out at sea in 2010.
Six Spanish industrial purse seiners and one Greek also fished in 2010, making the total number of active EU ships only 24 [1].
Bluefin tuna quotas in 2010 were set at 13500 tons (of which just over 7000 tons were allocated to the EU). Last week, EU fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki told MEPs that she would back “substantial†quota cuts in line with scientific recommendations.
European governments are currently meeting in Nagoya, Japan, to agree measures to preserve the Earth’s natural world. One of their pledges is to end overfishing within the decade. On 17 November, the Commission will represent the EU at the ICCAT meeting in Paris. Earlier this year, the EU failed to push through the listing of bluefin tuna as an endangered species to ensure its protection.