BRUSSELS — Large European fishing boats will no longer be allowed to fish for bluefin tuna after today because they have already used up the entire 2010 quota, halfway through the year, the EU’s executive said.
Bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic is overfished and in decline, according to environmentalists.
The fish is particularly prized in Japan, where high prices are paid for the key ingredient in sushi. Young tuna are usually caught alive to be fattened in Mediterranean fish farms before they are sold.
European Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes said the ban only affects large boats — purse seiners — which are responsible for most of the catch. It will hit primarily tuna fishermen in France, Greece and Spain.
It doesn’t affect boats based in Mediterranean countries that aren’t part of the European Union, such as Turkey and Libya.
The environmental group Greenpeace says non-EU fishing fleets take around 40 percent of the total catch. They say the “tuna massacre” should have been banned entirely this year to allow the fish to recover from persistent overfishing.
“Bluefin tuna is on the brink of extinction and fishing should never have taken place,” said Greenpeace’s Oliver Knowles. “Scientists have shown that the only appropriate fishing quota for bluefin tuna is zero.”
Japan and other Asian nations blocked efforts at the United Nations to declare the fish an endangered species at March talks — which would effectively have banned any international trade for the tuna.
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