EU orders industrial tuna fishing ban until year's end

Greenpeace stressed that the Mediterranean bluefin season, which started on 15 May, should not have been opened in the first place.

According to the NGO, many of the fish caught this year are currently being transported to large fattening farms, where they will be fed before they are killed and sold on the lucrative Japanese market.

"Non-European ships flying flags from countries like Turkey and Libya are expected to still be fishing after the end of the EU fishing season," it said, citing estimates according to which over 80% of the bluefin tuna have already been taken from the world's waters and the species could disappear if fishing is not halted immediately.

Mourad Kahoul, president of the Union of Mediterranean Tuna (STM), told French press agency AFP that French fishermen would challenge the ban, as eight of the 17 French ships had so far caught only 62% of their allowed quota.

He said the ships had been ordered to continue their activity – thus implicitly threatening the EU executive with conflict unless the ships that have not yet reached their quota are allowed to continue fishing.

International marine conservation organisation Oceana welcomed Commissioner Damanaki's move, but said that the anticipated purse seine fishery closure "clearly proves the fleet's overcapacity and its necessary prohibition until stocks recover".