Farming tuna to extinction

Charlotte Camilleri analysis the tuna farming industry and its ramifications on the tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and the impact on other Maltese industries.

Fish farming hit the news in July when the TMM Oaxaca collided with a fish farm just off Delimara. The cages were being towed by a tug-boat owned by Melita Tuna Ltd. It was reported that Oaxaca caused damage to the detriment of Melita Tuna Ltd in excess of one million pounds to one of the cages and tuna contained in it. More recently, Malta made headlines with it being implicated in illegal activity concerning penning of illegally caught tuna. The allegation was dismissed by the Maltese government. Even so, the fact remains that there seems to be consensus both domestically and internationally that tuna farming industry has reached its peak at the expense of the bluefin tuna’s extinction.
In September 2001 following the Planning Authority’s controversial decision to allow a St Paul’s Bay tuna pen, owned by Azzopardi, to double its cages, a group of NGO’s and academics called on the then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami to set up a team to investigate the decision.
The group composed of The Biological Conservation Research Foundation, Dr Adriana Vella, Fondazzjoni Ekologika Maltija, Friends of the Earth Malta and Din L-Art Helwa deplored the fact that there had not been any official reaction from the government. The group prophesied that “the decision taken by the PA will prove to have long term detrimental economic impacts on the economy as the type of ‘farming’ that is being conducted by Azzopardi is unsustainable as it involved catching thousands of tuna from the wild. This will deplete the tuna fish stock, which will mean that the tuna penning business will only have a short life span.” And so it seems for the latter part of the group’s prophesy.
The Maltese government had issued the first operating license for an offshore cage farm to a company called P2M in 1991. Today several licenses have been issued but relatively few Maltese or foreign companies actually operate due to the high risks and investment involved.
Bluefin tuna is on the brink of more or less becoming extinct and yet exorbitant amounts of tonnage gets caught and bred year after year. When it comes to irregularities, fish penning is no exception. The question as to what extent are legitimate quotas respected remains dubious. In the FAO Ministerial Meeting on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU) back in March 2005, Dr Francis Agius, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Fisheries, held that ‘Existing international instruments addressing IUU fishing have not been effective due to a lack of political will, different priorities and the necessary capacity and resources to ratify or implement them.’ In Malta, at present, this aspiration does not seem to be lacking, in principle at least.
Malta has the second highest farming capacity in the Mediterranean. Joe Borg, European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, has repeatedly emphasized the necessity of cooperation between all parties concerned for tuna protection. Scientists have cautioned time and time again that fishing pressure on bluefin tuna must be substantially cut to prevent a collapse of both the fishery and the stock. On the 5th of October 2006, Randolph Spiteri - Communications Coordinator for the Parliamentary Secretary for agriculture and fisheries wrote “The situation with blue fin tuna stocks has been discussed and argued on for the last decade and all the time we are told that the stocks are collapsing and yet every year these reports continue quoting that catches are always higher than the officially reported ones. It appears that the collapse may be a little exaggerated but it is definitely time to take proper stock of the situation”.
In his speech delivered during a Mariculture Offshore International two-day Conference organised by the Society for Underwater Technology and the Greenwich Forum as part of the World Food Day celebrations, held on the 11th October 2006, Dr Francis Agius, held that ‘Although the contribution of the fisheries sector to Malta’s GDP has been very low, its importance is reflected in many ways such as the sustainability of fishing communities which serve as tourist attractions and so on.’ He went on to say that ‘There has been considerable progress in the technology of fattening of marine species. Of particular relevance to Malta is the remarkable progress achieved in cage culture in open waters… Exposed site fish farming offers the advantage of minimising the risks of environmental contamination.’ The Marsascala community doesn’t seem to be too impressed.
At the end of its meeting held from the 2nd to the 6th October 2006, in Madrid, the standing committee on research and statistics of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) has recommended a reduction in the measure of fish killed by fishing. ICCAT estimates that at present fishing effort is more than three times the level that would provide optimum returns. In this meeting, Commissioner Borg declared that “Scientists’ findings have confirmed the fear that I have expressed on several occasions that the fishing effort was too high for the fishing possibilities”. He stressed that “we need to maintain bluefin tuna fishing at sustainable levels and the Commission will continue to play a leading role in the international endeavours to protect bluefin tuna and to initiate stock recovery. Success, however, will depend on all interested parties working together at the forthcoming ICCAT meeting in Dubrovnik, in November, to effectively combat illegal fishing activities which currently threaten the future of the bluefin tuna fishery. The multi-annual management programme must cover this stock from the fishery to the market”.
Sergi Tuleda, head of the fisheries programmes within the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) claims that around Spain’s Balearic islands, catches of bluefin tuna are down to only 15 per cent of what they were a decade ago. “Today’s data on the 2006 fishing season reveal that bluefin tuna farms, which would usually be filling up by this time of the year, have experienced a substantial decline”. He went on by saying that “From this year’s catches of wild Mediterranean tuna, some 22,520 tonnes have been put in captivity and farmed, a 25 per cent reduction compared to 30,000 tonnes farmed last year.” Ms Gemma Parks, WWF spokesperson, alleged that most of the fish in Malta’s tuna farms is coming from Libyan waters where over-fishing and underreporting are the rule. “Malta has a strong responsibility in the recovery of the bluefin tuna stock, and should strictly comply with its obligation to ensure that all tuna transferred into cages has been legally caught… The role of Malta in promoting a strict recovery plan for the species is essential.”
Scientists estimate that a short-term sustainable catch across the Mediterranean should be limited to 15,000 tonnes a year, less than one-third of the current legal total. This reduction is definitely good news for the Marsascala residents and businesses, not so much for the Maltese and Spanish investors whose investments run into millions of Euros.
Tuna Farming, for the Marsascala community, is an extremely sensitive issue, and not because Malta has been implicated in illegal activity by the World Wildlife Fund. What if tuna spotter planes were being flown out of the island during June or that bluefin tuna illegally caught in Libyan waters was being transferred to tuna farms in Malta? Both allegations have been dismissed by the government anyhow. In actual fact what the Marsascala residents are really concerned about is something else… the pride and joy of the South of Malta is being blemished.
Various NGO’s have lashed out against the operations of fish farms. Nature Trust Malta in May 2005 disagreed with the proposal to have multiple foreign fish farms at Marsascala and in August 2005 the Greens declared that the phasing out of fish farms is a more affable move than their intensification in one zone.
The Marsascala Shop Owners Association issued various press releases on the matter and in November 2005, in conjunction with the GRTU, commissioned a non-technical critical analysis report compiled by Envirocoop. When contacted by the Business Today, Reuben Buttigieg who chaired the Marsascala Shop Owners Association said that “the Association is not against fish farming in general. What it is against is the concentration of all farms in one area which are too close to land. The activity itself is detrimental to other businesses since gutting, beheading and tuna processing at sea inevitably produces organic waste which unfortunately has a negative visual impact on tourism which is vital for Marsascala. The land operation itself causes traffic with trucks loading and unloading, resulting in a negative impact on businesses”. He added that it also affects swimmers.
Dr Josie Muscat, representative of the ‘Grupp Indipendenti Marsascala’ (GIM) told the Business Today that GIM is not against the aquaculture industry. “This industry has a contribution to give as well to the country. However, this must not be at the detriment of certain localities or other businesses. The disproportionate use of the sea in one area is very dangerous”. He went on to say that the aquaculture zone in Marsascala is a disproportionate one. The applicant has been warned on the effects on tourism, health, parking, traffic, the sea pollution, noise pollution and visual pollution that such a massive project will have and in spite of this, the applicant, today operator, proceeded with the project and some of these negative impacts are already being seen.
Another concern, says Dr Muscat, is whether this project will allow the necessary traffic required by a Yacht Marina, if this will ever happen in Marsascala. “The accidents that occurred so far, in these first few months of operation show clearly that the claims being made by many were actually sound. Now will remedial action be taken or not?”
Apart from these disgruntlements, in the Maltese islands there are currently 482 full time as well as 1530 part time fishermen whose livelihood depends on fish stocks, and fish farming might impact negatively also on fish stocks due to the spread of diseases. A new Directive on the health of farmed fish, shell fish and disease control has just been adopted by the EU Agriculture Council. The focus is on pre-empting and preventing diseases, rather than treating them when they occur and so should trim down economic loss and minimise restrictions on trade.
Coastal zones are presently facing numerous problems. Half the European population lives in such areas. This demographic burden explains the pressure being put on resources, space, the environment and infrastructure. The European Fisheries Fund (EFF) for the period 2007-2013 contributes to the environmental dimension of sustainable fisheries in several ways. There are 68,000 kilometers of European Union Coasts and the EFF will finance measures that protect the marine resources as well as the environment and help halt the degradation of marine ecosystems. It can, inter alia, address some of the challenges of environmental degradation in fisheries regions. The issue is high on the EU Agenda, but how this is going to be better regulated at national level has yet to be seen.