Yahoo News 11 Sep 08;
The continued overfishing of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean is a "disgrace" and all fishing of the species in the region must be suspended immediately, a panel said Thursday.
A newly-published report from an independent panel reviewing the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) said countries are not respecting the fishing regulations they agreed to.
"The panel recommends that all fishing for East Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna be immediately suspended" until countries involved in those fisheries "agree to fully abide by the rules and recommendations of ICCAT and international fisheries law," said the report.
ICCAT is responsible for bluefin tuna, Mediterranean swordfish, and albacore tuna fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.
The independent panel called the management of bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean "an international disgrace," adding that those countries involved "have failed to conserve bluefin tuna."
The European Union, North African countries, Turkey, Japan and the United States are the principle members of ICCAT involved in the fishing of bluefin tuna, a species highly prized for use in popular Japanese dishes, sushi and sashimi.
Experts say too many of the large fish -- which can weigh up to 900 kilos (nearly 2,000 pounds) -- are ending up on the platters of restaurants around the globe.
Today more than 50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna are caught every year in the Mediterreanean. To prevent stocks from collapsing, that figure should be limited to 15,000 tonnes in the short term, according to ICCAT.
The three authors of the report -- Glenn Hurry from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, Moritaka Hayashi from Waseda University in Japan, and Jean-Jacques Maguire, an international fisheries scientist from Canada -- were commissioned to evaluate ICCAT's performance.
