Bluefin Tuna

[SPITEC]

Wednesday, 16th December 2009 - 10:58CET

Malta's blue fin fishing quota slashed

Malta's fishing quota for blue fin tuna has been slashed to 161 tonnes for next year.

The decision was taken at a meeting of EU ministers responsible for fisheries which ended yesterday in Brussels. Quoptas have been cut across the EU as part of a recovery plan.

Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino, who represented Malta, said he was backing a call by Italy for the European Commission to provide new financial measures to cushion the socio-economic impact of the reduction of the quota.

The Rural Affairs Ministry said the Maltese government was showing it was committed to measures for the sustainability of Blue Fin tuna.

The quota has been going down steadily, having been 331 tonnes in 2008.

[skip]

Just read that now, that's quite a reduction, can't remember offhand how much it was this year but I think around 250 tonnes.

Personally I would like to see Tuna Farms removed and a ban on tuna export so that the catches made by the local fishermen who be for the local market. The majority of the quota gets taken up purely for the fattening of tuna at the farms which eventually gets exported to Japan etc.

Though ultimately I suppose its up to the fishermen to decide what to do with their allocated quota.

[The_Gaffer]

The Bluefin Tuna quota allocated to Malta for year 2009 was 262 tons.  For next year, 2010 it will be 161 tons, or about 100 tons less.  The quota allocated to Malta is worked on the principle of sustaining the the Tuna Farms...if it ws just for local consumption, then that quota whould be much less!. 
Wonder what the allocated quota to the local recreational fishermen will be for 2010

[mellieha]

I know the answer The_Gaffer that is 0, nicht, nein, nada, zero, xejn. 

Its an unfortunate situation for everyone starting from the tuna and ending with the consumers. 

[SPITEC]

I think Mellieha is correct about 0, nicht, nein, nada, zero, xejn.   

[ciappinu]

As long as its going down its always good news.

[skip]

This is the way things are going but to be honest I'm not too concerned at all. I am well within my rights to go trolling and hookup a nice big BFT, enjoy the rush of hearing the reel scream and enjoy the fight bringing it near the boat, where once identified I must release it.

I will ensure I am not using stainless steel hooks and will simply cut my leader if need be, but as we all noticed this year, chances are there will be much more BFTs around to enjoy. Frankly if you do catch a 30kgs+ tuna its enough to feed most people's family all summer, so the fact that I cannot land the fish for me at least isn't a big concern.

I still think we should fight for the right to have an allocation of 50kgs each with appropriate permit.

[placebo]

i think every angler deserve the right to take a 30kg tuna at home once a year.

i agree with you skip.

[clutch_kick]

I think that any sort of conservation effort towards the BFT is a step in the right direction.  As skip said, and very rightly so, I think that Tuna farms should, if not banned out-right, be limited to no more than half the allocated quota of that particular year.  Local fisherman have a fundamental right to their livelihood, which is being eroded away by the tuna farms.  Unfortunately there is too much money involved in the farms, and too much personal interests from powerful individuals.

As for sport fishermen, I think that a one fish quota per registered angler, per season is more than fair.  A 50 kg tuna, has a lot of meat in it.  I personally fish for the thrill of the catch and fight, I generally always realease any surplus fish.  If I am spinning for Spnott, I would only keep the first decently sized fish, the rest go back.

[The_Gaffer]

All locally registered fishermen (the MFA's and MFB's) either opt to enter in to an agreement with the local fishfarm operators to sell their BFT catch, which mus still be alive, to the fishfarms.  Another option is to sell their allocated individual quota to the operators, thus transferring the quota licence to the operators,  and yet another option is to catch BFT on longlines and either sell directly to the fishmarket (pixkerija) for local consumption or directly to BFT merchants who will be at sea with their large ships. 
Personally I get an adrenaline rush once i hear the reel screaming out line, you know its not just another alonga on the hook, since the rate at which that line peels of the reel is about x10 the rate of an alonga hit.  Imagine this year, when we hooked up 3 BFT simultaneously....the middle rod and both outrigger rods burst into action all at once.  The activity on deck was awesome!!.  There are many descriptive words I can use to highlight this event, but I better not use them here. 
I will for sure be out there next year (God willing) and in the event that I do hook up again on BFT, I will practice my right to fight the fish, and release it once its near enough to either cut the line or release the hook

[Tracina]

I agree with Skip: Tuna farming is just deplorable. The complete reproductive cycle of blue fin tuna has never been understood, let alone accomplished in a laboratory... i.e. fish for the farms need to be caught in the wild and placed in fattening farms... (at least for Sparus aurata and Dicentrarchus labrax (Spnott), there are hatcheries, ovulation is induced via hormone injection (sick) and artificial insemination is carried out... fish are hatched, fed on phytoplankton, then plankton and then finally fish pellets). I know, because I worked in one such plant in Puglia for more than a year, before deciding to do other things in life.... And I think even this form of fish farming for species that we know how to reproduce is completely unsustainable!
And in fact, there is a secondo huge problem: food. Most of the fish (usually sardines and anchovies) used for making pellets is taken from areas around South AMerica (Argentina, Peru' etc). We don't hear of the environmental disaster that is happening there because they are "far away places", and might I add, very poor countries. But: Predatory fish stocks in these areas are plumetting... and so are sea-mammal populations (seals, orcas, dolphins, Capodoglio whales), and so are sea-bird populations (the cute and colored ones we see in documentaries)!!!
It's the usual story... why is this allowed? It's a beautiful cocktail of ignorance, selfishness, & egocentrism. $$$$$$
I don't even want to get into industrial trawling techniques... we think we are soooo advanced!? Immagine trawling on land: you take a big tractor, attach a huge net behind it, and start driving around forests & parks, taking everything in your path and leaving a line o barren land behind. You could catch dogs, cats, birds, cows, deer, trees, bushes, plants, rabbits, snakes, turtles, hedgehogs... (i think I made the point)... then? bah the only precious things are cows, deer and rabbit, so let's just THROW everything back dead. The crows will take care of the rest. Why is this not allowed on land? Because everyone would see it. What happens in the sea is "invisible", until one day we will realise it has become a wet desert.

Tracina

[clutch_kick]

Ben detto Tracina!

[MartinB]

And in fact, there is a secondo huge problem: food. Most of the fish (usually sardines and anchovies) used for making pellets is taken from areas around South AMerica (Argentina, Peru' etc). We don't hear of the environmental disaster that is happening there because they are "far away places", and might I add, very poor countries. But: Predatory fish stocks in these areas are plumetting... and so are sea-mammal populations (seals, orcas, dolphins, Capodoglio whales), and so are sea-bird populations (the cute and colored ones we see in documentaries)!!!
It's the usual story... why is this allowed? It's a beautiful cocktail of ignorance, selfishness, & egocentrism. $$$$$$
Tracina

I saw (and consequently bought) an a excellent documentary which highlights this point (and many others) and this was highlighted as one of the major drawback's regarding fish farming.The documentary was part of the Blue Planet series,its called Deep trouble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUg-E5IS2A

It was a real eye opener for a 'lay' person like myself as it highlights ALL points of this conundrum not just the conservation side of things,but also the fisherman's side also and a very reasonable look at differing points of view.
That being basically on one hand fish farming potentially is the solution to world-wide dwindling fish stocks of certain 'bread and butter' fish,but on the other creates a whole bunch of enviromental problems in & of itself.

Personally i agree with skip's point of view and would also like to see the Tuna Farms removed as the negative effects it has had on a shore angling point of view,especially in and around the St Pauls bay area over the years are considerable! Not to mention the effect on the seabed!
My next door nieghbour actually works at the SPB fish farms as a diver and from what he's told me the seabed all around that area is totally barren now!

Also i wholly agree 100% in principal,that a bag limit of one 30kg,or one tuna per licesensed/permit fisherman is reasonable and allows everyone to have fun catching and trying a freshly caught tuna...However the logistics of policing this seems a bit of a 'mission impossible' situation to me! Given 'our' local track record on these things,i think abuse would be invietable..

 

[blueskip]

Sheer lunacy with wild tuna catches, the scientists recommeded a catch of 400 tons for 2009, the politicians raised that to 1200 tons? the TOTAL CATCH for 2009 8,000 tons! 20 times greater than the scientific proposal how the hell can the BFT survive catch rates like that?
So if you think tuna farming causes problems for us how about the problems for the wild stock? Solution, eliminating the japanese might be possible solution!

[mellieha]

Lets look from an economic point of view. 

More BFT more supply is equal to a lower price assuming demand is constant and as always demand is greater than supply.

Now if less supply is available price will Increase thus benefiting the exporters and sellers. 

And this will curtail in a higher price for the consumer