Malta’s lucrative bluefin tuna industry has escaped any scathing criticism in a damning report issued in Brussels yesterday.
The report was issued by the International Consortium of International Journalists just a few days before the European Commission takes an official position on tuna catch quotas for 2011.
Titled Looting the Seas, the seven-month investigation carried out by 12 journalists in all the Mediterranean states fishing for this species claims the existence of a $4 billion black market and “a decade of rampant fraud and lack of official oversight” by the authorities concerned.
The investigation describes Malta as having over the last five years built up the largest bluefin ranching capacity in the Mediterranean. In 2007, Maltese tuna farms processed 11,360 tons of fish, almost 40 per cent of the world’s tuna quota.
But the report stops short of revealing any wrongdoing by local fishermen or tuna ranch operators. On the other hand, the report points fingers at French, Spanish and Italian fishermen, accusing them of adopting a “free-for-all” attitude and of being the main contributors to the near collapse of bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean.
The investigative report states that, led by the French, Spanish and Italians, Mediterranean fishermen violated official quotas at will and engaged in an array of illegal practices including misreporting catch size, hiring banned spotter planes, catching undersized fish and trading fishing quotas.
It says that fisheries officials in France colluded with the bluefin industry to doctor catch numbers and avoid international criticism. It lashes out at the Bluefin Tuna Catch Documentation Scheme — created by EU regulators to bring transparency to the trade - saying it is so full of holes that its data is almost useless.
As EU officials start to crack down on this abuse, less accountable fleets are ramping up operations in North Africa, particularly in Libya and Turkey, the report states.
It also accuses EU and national governments of protecting the bluefin industry with a wall of secrecy, denying public access to records on fishing and ranching violations.
Pro-environment lobby groups in Brussels yesterday used the report to put more pressure on the Commission to push for further cuts in bluefin tuna quotas for 2011.
Last week, EU member states, including Malta, objected to the Commission’s plans to further cut tuna quotas for next year.
They argued that the current controls, put in place some years ago by the EU, are having positive results and no further cuts are required.
In 2010, the EU’s total quota stood at 13,500 tons and the Commission is now insisting that this should be reduced further to approximately 6,000 tons next year.
The Maltese tuna industry has already warned against further cuts claiming they would drive fishermen out of business.