The European Commission will be ignoring a demand for financial compensation by Azzopardi Fisheries over the closure of the bluefin tuna fisheries earlier this month.
Last week, Charles Azzopardi (aka Il-Poodle) sent a judicial letter to both the Commission and Malta’s rural affairs ministry, claiming to have sustained losses as a result of the decision to halt the tuna season two weeks before the traditional closure date.
Azzopardi Fisheries is considered among the world’s top five tuna ranching industries, after Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan) and Ricardo Fuentes (Spain). No fixed amount was specified in its compensation demand, though it is understood that the closure resulted in substantial losses running into hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – of euros for the local tuna ranching industry.
However, Azzopardi has chosen to go through local judicial channels, and sources close to the Commission explained that the EC cannot be sued in a local court, although a case can always be brought against it in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
The Commission justified its decision to close the fisheries on the grounds that European member states had collectively exhausted over 80% of their total allowable catch within a few weeks of the season.
Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg also alluded to widespread illegal fishing practices, including the use of spotter planes and the deliberate under-declaration of catch.
Azzopardi Fisheries are currently at the centre of numerous such allegations, and a recent investigation, ordered by transport minister Austin Gatt into an alleged double-registration of two fishing boats, concluded by recommending further action by the Attorney General.
Bluefin tuna attracts massive prices on the international market, largely on account of enormous demand in Japan where it a prized delicacy. This has attracted disproportionate interest in the giant ocean-going predator on the part of Mediterranean fisheries, including those of Spain, Italy, France and Malta.
International conservation organisations such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund have expressed concern that serial over-fishing by these and other fisheries is currently driving the species to extinction at an alarming rate.
The Commission has variously been criticised for failing to take decisive action to halt tuna fishing abuses, among others by world-renowned author Frederick Forsythe, who alleged in The Telegraph that Commissioner Borg may have been “persuaded” to keep the fisheries open by the French and Italian fisheries ministers.
Ironically, Borg is now under fire by the selfsame French and Italian ministers for giving in to pressure from environmentalists groups, while neither Forsythe nor The Telegraph has commented on his unexpected decision to close the tuna fisheries as of June 16.

rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt