BLUEFIN tuna in the Mediterranean are the latest fish stock to face collapse. If overfishing continues, the species will be commercially extinct within two years (see “Tuna in peril” and “Tigers of the sea”).
What is staggering is that the ironically titled International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas has consistently ignored the advice of its own scientific advisers (that might sound familiar to UK readers). This year, when its advisers had recommended that the fishery be shut temporarily, ICCAT set a quota of 22,000 tonnes.
This week, ICCAT is meeting to decide next year’s quotas,…
