WRITTEN QUESTION E-2483/02 by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission. Uncontrolled tuna fishing in Mediterranean waters.
Date: 2002-09-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: France, Spain, common fisheries policy, fishing industry, fishing regulations, traditional fishing

C 110 E/58

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.5.2003

Bluefin tuna management in the Mediterranean is entrusted to the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean
(GFCM). The Community is a member of both these regional fishery organisations and applies all the
management and conservation measures they adopt.

ICCAT and GFCM are investigating this new practice and examining what regulatory framework may be
needed. The Commission in cooperation with the Member States is taking an active part in this exercise.
The Community participated in the last joint GFCM/ICCAT meeting on Mediterranean stocks of large
pelagic fish, at which the practice was discussed.

The Commission, as stated in its Communication on conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries
in the Mediterranean (1), will play an active role, notably within international organisations, to ensure that
this practice is developed in a way that does not increase fishing pressure on the wild stock, particularly on
juveniles, and does not degrade the marine environment.
It anticipates a very wide debate on the
forthcoming revision of technical measures in the Mediterranean due by the end of 2003, and this topic
will certainly be among those receiving attention. In addition the revision of the Commission Regulation
implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000 of 29 June 2000 establishing a Community
framework for the collection and management of the data needed to conduct the common fisheries
policy (2)
(Community data collection framework), also due by the end of 2003, should allow an
improvement in statistical data collection.

As regards Structural Fund assistance for tuna fattening in cages, the definition of aquaculture given in
Council Regulation (EC) No 2792/1999 of 17 December 1999 laying down detailed rules and
arrangements regarding Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector (3) is such that the fattening
practised notably in Spain and Italy is to be considered as aquaculture and hence is potentially eligible for
assistance.

(1) COM(2002) 535.
(2) OJ L 176, 15.7.2000.
(3) OJ L 337, 30.12.1999.

(2003/C 110 E/061)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2483/02

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission

Subject: Uncontrolled tuna fishing in Mediterranean waters

(6 September 2002)

Complaints have been made by the small-scale Mediterranean fishery (cid:1) specifically on this occasion by the
Association of Fishermen of Carboneras (Almería, Spain) (cid:1) concerning the uncontrolled tuna fishing
practised by vessels belonging to certain Mediterranean fish farms. The Association’s secretary, Mr Simón
Pérez, has stated that its fishermen catch some 500 tonnes per week, while 40 tuna seiners fishing under
the French flag (even if for Spanish enterprises) catch 7 000-8 000 tonnes, with the aid of light aircraft
which help them locate the fishing grounds.

The local small-scale fleet employs 400 people, who are now anxious that their jobs may disappear thanks
to the operations of these seiners, which, according to the Association, transport cages from their farms to
the fishing grounds in order to capture the tuna, which they then transfer to the larger cages which have
existed for fifteen years now in Cartagena and Mazarrón (Murcia), with the authorisation of Murcia’s
regional government. The small-scale fishermen’s longlines and tackle are destroyed by these cages, which
can go down as deep as 35 m.

It appears that these cages are manufactured in Sète and exported from there over a large part of the
Mediterranean.

Is the Commission aware of these practices?

What is its opinion on this state of affairs?

What action does the Commission intend to take?

8.5.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 110 E/59

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(17 October 2002)

Bluefin tuna management in the Mediterranean is entrusted to the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean
(GFCM). The Community is a member of both organisations and implements all the management and
conservation measures they adopt.

Fattening tuna in cages is a new practice that has been growing in the Mediterranean in the last few years
and ICCAT, GFCM and the Community are well aware of this.

ICCAT and GFCM are studying the situation to work out what management measures are essential. The
Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, is taking an active part in this work. The Community
participated in the last joint GFCM/ICCAT meeting on Mediterranean stocks of large pelagic fish, which
examined the problem.

The interaction of fishing gear and transported cages is a problem that has to be dealt with at local level.
Designating specific routes for boats moving cages into inshore waters might be an effective solution.

The Commission is astonished to hear of catches of 500 tonnes a week by the Cofradía de Pescadores de
Carboneras. Such a volume takes Spanish catches well above those authorised and declared to ICCAT by
the Spanish authorities. The Commission will enquire into the accuracy of this figure.

(2003/C 110 E/062)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2487/02

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission

(6 September 2002)

Subject: Sand eel catch

The Commission is frequently obliged to adopt and propose measures relating to catch possibilities which
lack the necessary scientific basis. Our ignorance of the sea exceeds our knowledge of it, especially
regarding the interrelations between different maritime species. Thus, for instance, the scarcity of species
such as cod or haddock is the result not so much of overfishing as of large-scale catches by the industrial
fleet of other species, such as sand eel, which form their basic diet, for purposes of conversion into
fishmeal.

Industry sources suggest that the reappearance of haddock in the North Sea fishing-grounds could be
caused by the increase in sand eel stocks following the ban on Danish trawlers in the Wee Bankie zone.
Nonetheless, the British fisheries research department claims that the increase in haddock stocks is a result
of past reductions in the fishing effort.

Has the Commission studied the interrelations between these two species? If so, what conclusions has it
reached? Does the Commission not consider that, quite apart from overfishing, the uncontrolled catching
of species which are not placed on the market for human consumption, such as sand eel, has the result of
puncturing the food chain and reducing the stocks of other species, such as cod and haddock, which are
thus deprived of their basic diet?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(16 October 2002)

Current scientific opinion indicates that the decrease of cod and haddock populations (and that of a
number of other species) is due to excessive fishing of these species.

However, it has been asserted or postulated by other parties (but not by science) that the decrease may be
a result of reduction of food for these species as a result of large-scale fishing of sandeels.