At the end of July, a Balearic fleet trawler accidentally caught 13 dead and decomposing tuna. The specimens were found between the Bay of Palma and Andratx.
The situation is not new. Just a month earlier, this same vessel captured 5 dead and decomposing tuna weighing 200 kilos each.
These bad practices have been a constant in recent years. They have very negative consequences, both for Balearic Islands fishers and for the environmental health of our sea. It is very serious that a fish of the highest commercial and ecological value such as tuna is lost in this way and it impacts the Balearic fleet. But where do these carcasses come from?
The main hypothesis is that the tuna boats that fish in the Balearic Sea to feed the fattening farms in Murcia and Tarragona throw the tuna that die during the operation (fishing, transfer to cage, transport of cages) back into the sea so that they are not counted in their quota. This is unacceptable and has multiple impacts.
It negatively affects the Balearic fishing fleet because fishing for decomposing tuna causes them to lose wages and puts their working gear at risk. It represents a double waste: the dead tuna that is not used and the catch of the trawler that is unusable and cannot be marketed. It threatens the sustainability of the resource since several tons of tuna are fished but are not counted because they are thrown into the sea, in addition to the loss of wasted Balearic fishing resources.
These impacts are even more difficult to assume considering that the Balearic fleet has less than 1% of the total tuna quota that the Ministry of Fisheries distributes among the Spanish fishing fleet. Recreational fishers have it much worse; they can’t access a single ton of tuna, although it is a species that is fished accidentally and poached. In addition, the Balearic Sea is a key area for the reproduction of different species of tuna; we have the highest density of bluefin tuna eggs and larvae detected anywhere in the world.
In Marilles, we have publicly requested a thorough investigation to identify the vessels and companies responsible for this activity and the extent of the problem. Right now, we don’t know if the dead tuna thrown into the Balearic Sea number a few tens, hundreds, or thousands. The companies that have committed these practices should be penalised with a quota reduction in addition to a financial penalty.
We have been suffering from this intolerable practice for too long. It is time to put an end to this impunity. Tuna is a species of great strategic value for the Balearic fleet and recreational fishing.
The Balearic Islands have a lot of tuna, but very little right to fish it. That other vessels come to squander this resource under our noses and do so causing problems to the Balearic fleet is an unacceptable insult. Every tuna wasted would have been a tuna used by Balearic fishers. We ask the Ministry of Fisheries to take courageous and immediate action to stop this nonsense and redistribute the tuna quota in favour of Balearic vessels. We don’t want a tuna cemetery in our waters. Something smells bad in the business of tuna-fattening farms.