Basically, the whole tuna fishery agrees : The fishing season is a disaster. But it is too early to say for sure that the stock of bluefin tuna collapsed. There might be a delay in their migrations to the spawning areas, and everybody hopes that these sea giants would arrive soon.

This morning the fishermen were blaming other countries’ fleets of purse-seiners, like Turkey’s one to which ICCAT – International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna – didn’t allocate any quota yet. Of course countries such as Turkey, Tunisia and Italy are very much involved in the overfishing of this species. But one shouldn’t forget the very modern French fleet which is the most important supplier of live bluefin tuna to Mediterranean farms.

Moreover, how can one explain that with 40 purse-seiners the French fleet doesn’t fish well beyond a 6000 tonnes/ year quota, when the spanish fleet fishes almost as much with only six purse-seiners ?

The answer came from one of the French vessels’ captain we spoke to : “we overcome quotas, we try to earn a living, make a good season to pay for the boats”.