Tuna fishing to be cut by 30 percent over two years: EU

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Bluefin tuna fishing will have to be cut by 30 percent over two years in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean under an international accord reached in Marrakesh, the European Commission said Tuesday. The total allowable haul of the increasingly endangered species was slashed from 28,500 tonnes in 2008 to 22,000 tonnes in 2009 and 19,950 tonnes in 2010, the European Union's executive arm said. A further quota cut to 18,500 tonnes in 2011 could also be possible depending on a review of stock levels in 2010.

The agreement was struck on Monday at a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), whose members -- the main fishing nations -- had been negotiating quotas since November 17. While the organisation had not given details of the accord, the European Commission's figures confirmed numbers given by conservation group WWF.

While groups such as the WWF have attacked the agreement for not going far enough, the commission -- which negotiated on the European Union's behalf -- voiced satisfaction. "It is a sign of the seriousness of the situation, and the maturity of all the participants, that it has been possible to achieve a consensus," said EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg in a statement….

Charles Frederick Holder with his then record 183 lb. bluefin Tuna, 1898, caught in the waters off California, not in the Mediterranean