EU bluefin tuna fishing ban for Mediterranean

A ban on fishing for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic has been announced by the EU for large industrial vessels after widespread evidence of illegal fishing.

The closure of the season for purse-seine vessels which catch 70 per cent of the bluefin in the Mediterranean had been planned for July 1 but the European Commission said that the end of the fishing season was being brought forward because of EU vessels' repeated failure to comply with the rules.

Earlier this week the environmental group, Oceana, documented the use of spotter planes, which are banned, being used to round up some of the last of a breeding population which scientists say is in danger of being wiped out.