WWF scientists, launching the three-year On the Med tuna trail project

in Spain's Balearic Islands, hope to map tuna migrations around the

Mediterranean and verify theories that there may be resident tuna

populations in the eastern Mediterranean that never venture into the

Atlantic.

"It is scandalous that we know so little about a species we are

putting under such huge pressure from illegal fishing and oversized

fleets," said Dr Pablo Cermeño, WWF Mediterranean's Tuna Officer.

"WWF's new tagging project will shed new light on tuna migratoryroutes

and behaviour which will enable far more effective recovery and

management plans both for the tuna and the fishery that depends on

them."

On the Med tuna trailwill also be a race against time to gather data

before the overstretched fishery collapses. Current annual catches

taking ever smaller and more juvenile fish are estimated to be in the

region of 60,000 tonnes – double the level allowed by law and four

times the amount considered sustainable by international scientists.

Very few tagging studies have been done in the eastern Atlantic and

Mediterranean so far, with activity focusing instead mostly on the

western Atlantic. WWF's tagging project, which will collect, among

others, information on position and depth of the high speed fish, will

fit adult fish (over 40kg) with 'pop-up' tags that record information

at a frequency of once per minute. These release from the fish at a

specified time and float to the surface for the data to be read by

satellite.

Important lifecycle information on the bluefin will also come from

'archival' tags clipped onto juvenile fish and recovered at point of

catch – wherever that may be.

"The plan behind this project is to fill the gap between the little we

do know about bluefin behaviour in the Mediterraneanand what we need

to know," said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF

Mediterranean. "When we have better data, we would urge fisheries

decision-makers to use it to make better-informed choices for the

management of this endangered species."

WWF's tuna tagging activities – planned in partnership with key

international scientific institutions and fishing stakeholders in the

Mediterranean, and made possible thanks to financial help from the

Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation – will run to 2010.

Today's On the Med tuna trail tagging launch will use tuna caught by

recreational fishers in the Balearics, once the most significant

breeding area for bluefin in the Mediterranean.

WWF, which is calling for a recovery period moratorium on bluefin tuna

fishing if effective rules for a sustainable fishery cannot be drawn

up and enforced, is also promoting the establishment of a tuna

sanctuary in the Balearics.

Further WWF tagging events across Mediterranean waters will roll out

in September and in 2009.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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