Maltese fishermen next year will only be able to catch half the tuna they used to net three years ago, after EU ministers yesterday agreed to make further cuts to the amount of bluefin tuna that can be fished next season.
Tuna is one of the main sources of income for Maltese fishermen.
But in the light of scientific evidence that stocks in the Mediterranean are dwindling fast, Malta was allocated a total quota of 161 tonnes for next year, down more than 45 per cent from 2007.
The quota then was 355 tonnes and it has gone down steadily since, to 331 tonnes in 2008 and 262 tonnes this year.
The cuts are being described by Maltese fishermen as another nail in the industry's coffin.
A spokesman for one of the local fishermen's associations said the Maltese were bearing the brunt of other European fishermen using industrial technology to catch bluefin tuna and deplete stocks.
"We can't understand how everyone is being put in the same basket. Maltese fishermen catch tuna in a traditional and sustainable way using long-lines while others use purse seiners to scoop as much as 100 tonnes at one go.
"Despite our sustainable way of fishing we are being punished by the EU and more fishermen are being driven out of the industry," the spokesman said.
During the ministers' council meeting in Brussels, Rural Affairs and Resources Minister George Pullicino said Malta was accepting the new quotas but called on the EU to compensate fishermen for their losses.
He said that the repetitive cuts in tuna quotas were leaving their mark on the Maltese fishing community and the EU must devise new financial measures to compensate for the socio-economic effects.
Meanwhile, environmental groups are still calling for a total ban on bluefin tuna fishing, insisting this is the only way to avoid a total collapse of the fishery.
Monaco has submitted a request for bluefin tuna to be declared an endangered species and a total ban imposed when the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meets next March.
Malta and a number of other Mediterranean states are opposing this proposal.