EU proposal sounds death knell for tuna industry

Malta's multimillion euro tuna industry has one year left of life if a European Commission proposal for a trade ban, tabled yesterday, gets the support of the majority of member states and the UN convention on endangered species (Cites) in Doha next month.

The news of the proposal came at a joint press conference in Brussels held by the EU executive's environment and fisheries commissioners, Janez Poticnik and Maria Damanaki, who effectively reversed former Maltese Commissioner Joe Borg's resistance to the imposition of a total ban.

Brussels said that while recognising that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) had taken a number of steps to address the situation of dwindling tuna stocks since 2006, on the basis of the most recent scientific data available it felt bluefin tuna should be included in Appendix I of Cites.

This groups together species threatened with extinction, in which trade must be subject to particularly strict regulation and authorised only in exceptional circumstances. Listing bluefin tuna under Appendix I effectively means a ban on the international trade in this fish.

The Commission, however, decided to give some more time to the industry and proposed that the listing should only take effect at the start of the 2011 season, normally in March.

The proposal says the Cites meeting in Doha "would indicate that the listing's entry into force would have to be decided by the Cites Standing Committee within 12 months".

The committee would have to base its decision on the latest scientific information available on the situation of the stock. The proposal means that Malta's artisanal fishermen would still be able to catch tuna but only for local consumption. The present practice of selling to Japan 80 per cent of the tuna caught by EU fishermen - which is where the big profits lie for local fishing firms - would not be able to carry on. The same would apply to tuna ranches that normally buy small tuna and export them to Japan after fattening them.

Malta's tuna industry last year exported some €100 million worth of tuna to the Japanese sushi and sashimi markets.

The Commission said it would be looking into assisting the industry through compensation.

The proposal will have to be approved by member states before becoming EU policy but this is not seen as a major problem as the majority of member states are now in favour of the ban.