Yesterday, the E.U. announced its decision to close the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean (that once vibrant, now empty) Sea for the remainder of the year. The decision is not particularly surprising because the fishers had already reached their quoto of 17000 tonnes and the Atlantic bluefin tuna has been in big trouble for a while. But the EU is not known for putting strict regulations on the tuna fishery and estimated upwards of 35 percent of the bluefin caught in 2006 was illegal.
Furthermore, aquaculture has many ethical dimensions, which include the loss of traditions and the ethical concern of domesticating wild fish. In the Sea of Sicily, tonnaras were complex systems of nets to catch tuna as well as a right of passage for the local men, who learned how to set the nets, sing songs about tuna, and speak an entire tonnara language. Italy's last tonnara has closed and the songs are silent. Instead, juvenile tuna are captured at sea, slowly towed toward shore, and fattened in net pens off the Mediterranean coastline until they are sold.
Environment
Comments
It is certainly a shame that it had to come to this, but the EU has shown good judgment. Of course if a third of the catch is illegally procured, then this closure could unfortunately still result in continual illegal harvest of bluefin tuna for the rest of the season. By the way, great paper.
Posted by: Megan | September 20, 2007 1:15 PM
Too bad this ban doesn't extend to the actions of the huge EU-subsidized fishing fleets operating in other parts of the world, such as off the West Coast of Africa.
Posted by: Milan | September 21, 2007 12:17 PM
Milan, Very interesting point you bring up and coincides with this recent news:
Country members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) said they would improve their joint annual production through increased fish farming and exploitation of marine resources. Statistics showed that all Comesa states currently have an estimated annual catch of 2.8 million tonnes. This output is, however, only about 42 per cent of the potential annual catch estimated to be 6.7 million metric tonnes. This dismal performance is attributed to the current scenario where rural small-scale fishing communities are the main explorers of fisheries despite their inadequacies in terms of infrastructure such as fishing vessels. Although they represent a small volume, activities are dominated by large foreign owned companies that provide little returns for local economies.
Read more at Business Daily Africa.
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | September 23, 2007 9:11 AM
Too bad this ban doesn't extend to the actions of the huge EU-subsidized fishing fleets operating in other parts of the world, such as off the West Coast of Africa.
Posted by: sex shop | December 22, 2007 8:46 AM