Posted on September, 21 2004

Brussels, Belgium – A report released today denounces the illegality and the unsustainability of a number of tuna fishing and fattening practices in the Mediterranean.

The report by Spanish-based tuna-farming consulting company Advanced Tuna Ranching Technologies (ATRT) confirms that the highly overexploited tuna stock may soon become commercially extinct.

WWF urges the European Commission to take into consideration the evidence provided in the report and put an immediate end to damaging tuna farm subsidies.
 
According to the report, from 2002 to 2004 the amount of tuna farmed has increased from 14,620 to 22,500 tonnes, leading to the overexploitation of the resource. The authors also mention that a 14,500 tonne stock of tuna fished and farmed in 2003 was still waiting to be sold in Japan before this year's fishing season even started, while some 28,000 more tonnes are expected to be produced this year.
 
"This data clearly shows how the fast growing tuna farming business is out of control," said Paolo Guglielmi, Head of WWF-Mediterranean's Marine Unit.
 
The ATRT report points out that the overfishing and overfarming have been encouraged by EU subsidies (US$34 million since 1997 has been distributed to France, Greece, Italy, and Spain) coupled with Japanese and Australian investments in Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, and Croatia.

WWF has already denounced loopholes in European Union (EU) legislation allowing tuna farms to benefit from aquaculture subsidies whereas it should not be considered as aquaculture (wild tuna being caught and then fattened in farms). WWF is urging the European Commission to exclude the tuna farming sector from the subsidies given to aquaculture.
 
The comprehensive study also uncovers a great deal of previously unreported information, detailing practices of tuna fishing, shipping, processing, and trading which violate the existing rules. Illegalities are common at each step of the tuna fishing and farming chain, in particular the main problem coming from unreported tuna which is directly shipped to countries in the Far East and escapes from registration duties in EU countries. 
 
WWF urgently asks the EC and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) for the real-time monitoring of catches by independent observers on board in order to ensure that the quotas are respected.

WWF also asks for an immediate moratorium on new tuna farming plans and the attribution of specific quotas of the total tuna catches for the tuna farms. 
 
Notes to editors: 
• Mediterranean countries involved in tuna fishing and farming are: Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Libya, Malta, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey. Countries involved in Mediterranean tuna trading are: China, Japan, Korea, and the United States. 
 
• The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) - is an inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas.

For further information: 
Chantal Ménard
Communications, WWF Mediterranean Programme
Tel: +39 06 844 97 417/424
E-mail: cmenard@wwfmedpo.org