Photo: Alicia Bugeja Said/FacebookMalta’s fish farms may well break out the champagne as parliamentary secretary Alicia Bugeja Said announced on Monday that the country is set to benefit from a significant increase in its bluefin tuna quotas.
Bugeja Said said on social media that Malta’s quota may increase by 70 tonnes following discussions by the EU’s fisheries ministers at the Council of the EU.
While it is up to EU to determine how its quota is apportioned among its member states, international quotas for the fishing of the prized Atlantic bluefin tuna are set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and had been reduced significantly as overfishing brought about a dramatic decline in the numbers of Atlantic tuna: it had resisted an outright ban despite its own scientific advisors deeming one justified.
But ICCAT is now poised to significantly increase quotas citing increased numbers, though its decisions have long been criticised by conservation organisations, including the WWF, which has repeatedly accused it of prioritising the short-term interests of fisheries over the long-term conservation needs of the species.
In any case, the significant increase in quotas that Bugeja Said expects would primarily benefit Malta’s fish farms, most of whom fatten wild-caught tuna for export, primarily to Japan, where the fish is prized for sushi.
It remains to be seen whether the increase in farmed tuna would lead to an increase in a phenomenon linked to farming: the flow of sea slime to Malta’s coasts.
