May is the time of year when adult blue-fin tuna return from all over the North Atlantic to spawn in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Only about 1 in 40 million of the tuna larvae which hatch will survive to adulthood.

After spawning, adults return to the Atlantic. While some blue-fin tuna live their whole lives in the Mediterranean, most juveniles only stay for a year or so, before forming into huge schools with other juveniles and heading out via the Straits of Gibraltar, into the Atlantic, where they stay until they reach sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years old, at which time, they return to the Med. to spawn.

An adult blue-fin on average measures 2 metres long and weighs around 250kg, but they have been known to reach lengths of over 4 metres. If it is lucky enough to evade predators and fishing nets, a tuna can live for between 15 and 30 years.

Few last that long these days. Several countries including France, have in the past been accused of exceeding agreed fishing quotas. This, and the fact that juvenile fish figure amongst the catches has meant the species has been fished faster than it can reproduce, threatening its ultimate survival.

It has been estimated that the Mediterranean accounts for around 73% of all reported tuna catches and France is the main supplying country of blue-fin tuna to the EU (followed by Spain and Italy). When Greenpeace's flagship, “The Rainbow Warrior II”, came to Marseilles last September to publicise reports of dwindling blue-fin stocks in the Mediterranean, it was blockaded by angry French tuna fishermen. The fishermen were trying to protect their livelihoods, but since not even the most accomplished fisherman can catch fish which aren't there, one could argue it would have been in their own future interests to at least listen to what Greenpeace had to say.

According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Japan and Europe were so concerned about an imminent collapse of blue-fin stocks in the Mediterranean that they threatened a boycott unless drastic action was taken to protect the species. In fact, many restaurants in Japan and Europe have taken blue-fin off their menus altogether, replacing it with other species, such as yellow-fin or albacore.

December 2006 saw the introduction of reduced fishing quotas, (although environmentalists claim the revised quotas are still too high) and in January 2007, the FAO's* General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) adopted a blue-fin 15-year recovery plan, which includes restrictions on periods and boat-types, a ban on using aeroplanes to spot tuna and restrictions on the capture of tuna under 30kg.

Early days, but some steps in the right direction have been taken. Let's hope more will follow.

* FAO: Food & Agriculture Organization of The United States

From The Riviera Reporter Var Supplement, issue April/May 2007 

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