EU subsidies have enabled the Union’s tuna fishing fleets to grow to almost twice the capacity needed to catch the current quotas – to be cut drastically in 2010 – for the severely threatened species, Commissioner Joe Borg revealed in a reply to a parliamentary question.
It should be noted that even those TACs are seen as too high by many scientists, and environmental organisations have called for a total bluefin tuna fishing ban.
At a meeting in Brazil in November, The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) decided to reduce the annual Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing quota to about one-third of the 2009 levels, a decision that the EU Commission welcomed as “decisive action”, while angry conservationists called it a “sell-out”.
Earlier this fall, the EU Council had rejected a proposal from Monaco, supported by the Commission, to halt the bluefin tuna trade temporarily.
According to the European Commission, EU vessels are able to catch almost 21,900 tonnes of tuna a year, approaching twice the EU’s 2009 quota of 12,400 tonnes.
Replying to a question from Spanish Green MEP Raül Romeva i Rueda, Commissioner Borg revealed that between 2000 and 2008, a total of €34.5 million was given by the EU to support the fishing fleets. Spain received more than half of the subsidy, with French and Italian fleets the next biggest beneficiaries.
A total of €23 million was given to fund the construction of new boats, including ultra-modern purse seiners that are able to land 100 tonnes in one haul. A further €10.5 million was given to modernise existing vessels, making them even more efficient in their quest for tuna.
A total of €1 million was used to decommission vessels, but mainly for small-scale, local boats.
“I am shocked at the scale of the subsidies given to the bluefin fleet,” said Romeva i Rueda to the Times. “This shows clearly the hypocrisy of the EU, which insists on the need to conserve fish stocks while simultaneously encouraging the rapid expansion of a fleet that was already too large.”
The figures surprised even hardened observers. “We’ve always suspected the amount of public subsidy was very high, but until now it’s been very hard to get a good picture,” said Sergi Tudela of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
“These figures are not even complete yet. This is just the funding from Brussels, and the figures do not include the national subsidies, which in many cases equal them. It’s a real scandal,” he said.