EU banned tuna fishing until the end of 2007

The European Commission has just approved a ban on ocean tuna fishing currently in danger of overexploitation in the waters of the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean from now until the end of the year. This decision was made to avoid indiscriminate exploitation after EU countries reached the 2007 target.

An EU official said that some measures would be implemented to prevent misrepresentation of catches and exceeding allowable quotas.

This ban will affect tuna fishing activities of Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain. Meanwhile, Italy and France have completed the plan to catch tuna in 2007.

(Photo: AFP) Currently EU member states have reached the quota of 16,779.5 tons in 2007. High Commissioner for EU fishing, Joe Borg said: 'There are some problems. It is emerging that some countries have over-exploited the allowable and unbalanced exploitation targets among countries'.

However, countries that have not reached the quota at the time of the ban are offered compensation under EU law. Under EU and international regulations, any member that has over-exploited will be fined.

Tuna has been hunted aggressively for many years in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. The number of catches declared is much lower than actual and this makes fish density in these areas much reduced.