News Release: Pirates and Plunder: why swordfish is off the menu this summer

News Release: London, 11th July 2007 The tourist’s taste for swordfish is wiping out the species and damaging the marine environment, reveals a new report released today.


Swordfish is a quintessential Mediterranean dish and one that thousands of Britons will tuck into as they holiday in the region over the coming weeks, but as the new report, “Illegal Driftnetting in the Mediterranean” reveals illegal driftnets, which have a devastating on the Mediterranean’s marine wildlife, are being used to catch swordfish.

Up to one-quarter of Mediterranean swordfish are caught using illegal driftnets, which were banned from global use in the early 1990s. Known as ‘walls of death’ because of their devastating impact on non-target marine species such as whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks and seabirds, these nets can be tens of miles long and continue to be used by an estimated 600 vessels from Italy, France, Morocco and Turkey.

- In Italy, an estimated 100 illegal driftnet vessels operate, some having received up to €70,000 of EU taxpayers’ money to convert their vessels to legal fishing methods. In 2006, 250 miles of illegal nets were confiscated by the authorities. Striped dolphins, common dolphins, sperm whales, sharks, sea turtles and seabirds are amongst the species accidentally killed after becoming entangled in these nets.

- France’s illegal driftnet fleet, known as ‘thonaille’, which targets swordfish and tuna, has been observed fishing within the internationally protected Pelagos Sanctuary, and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of striped and Risso’s dolphins, sperm whales, and pilot whales.

- The main known cause of decline of sperm whales in the Mediterranean is accidental capture in swordfish driftnets.

- The Moroccan driftnet fleet of around 170 boats, the second largest producers of swordfish in the Mediterranean, is estimated to accidentally catch up to 19,000 dolphins and over 100,000 sharks every year.

“Mediterranean swordfish are overfished, undersized and often caught by illegal driftnets, says Steve Trent, EJF Executive Director. “It is outrageous that two developed countries – France and Italy – allow their fishing fleets to continue using these highly destructive nets, flouting EU law and ignoring international agreements to which they are party. At a time when global fish stocks are under increasing pressure, governments must take a stand against these pirate fishers – failure to do so will lead to catastrophic declines of some of our most important marine species and undermine the existence of the marine environment upon which so much tourism in the Mediterranean depends.”

“Swordfish is clearly not a sustainable choice for the responsible consumer,” continues Trent. “The EU and national governments have failed in their duty to manage swordfish stocks responsibly, but holiday makers can simply choose not to eat swordfish when they dine out this summer”.

ENDS

Additional Information:

1. Concerns about the sustainability of swordfish fisheries has prompted UK supermarkets, including Asda and Tesco, to withdraw swordfish from their shelves. Swordfish features in the Marine Conservation Society’s top 20 fish to avoid, and is listed as threatened or to be avoided by a number of other organisations including Greenpeace, the National Audubon Society, Sea Food Choices Alliance, Pew Oceans Commission, and Monterey Bay Aquarium.

2. Europe serves as the major market for swordfish from the Mediterranean. Over 1,200 tonnes of swordfish, worth in the region of €8 million (£5 million), were imported into the EU from Morocco in 2004 (going mostly to Italy).

3. Swordfish are distributed worldwide and as a top predator play an important role in the marine ecosystem. However, nearly all swordfish stocks are exploited heavily, with scientists recently estimating that swordfish and other large fish have declined by over 90% since the onset of industrial fishing 50 years ago. In the Mediterranean, up to 70% of the reported catch is made up of small swordfish less than 3 years old, many of which will have never spawned.

4. High levels of mercury have been found concentrated in the flesh of swordfish and other top ocean predators. This has led the UK Food Standards Agency to recommend that pregnant women, women who intend to become pregnant, infants and children under 16 years of age should avoid eating swordfish, shark and marlin, and as a precaution, that people should not eat more than one portion of these fish a week.

5. In Italy, 800km (500 miles) of nets were confiscated by the Italian authorities in 2005 and 400km (250 miles) seized in the first half of 2006. The use of driftnets around the island of Ischia (off Naples), has been monitored for a number of years by Delphis, a local whale and dolphin research organisation. Illegally-caught swordfish have been observed being landed and transferred onto vans bearing the EU logo, and numerous stranded striped dolphins and sperm whales have been found with scars indicative of being caught in driftnets.

6. On June 28th, 2007 the European Council adopted a regulation (9488/07) amending Regulations (EC) no 894/97, (EC) no 812/2004 and (EC) no 2187/2005 as concerns driftnets by introducing a uniform definition of driftnets in all three of these acts. These amendments should close the legal loopholes that have been exploited by driftnetting nations. The French delegation voted against the adoption of the regulation.

7. The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is campaigning internationally to end illegal, unregulated and unreported or ‘pirate’ fishing. For further information: www.ejfoundation.org.


For further information, contact Duncan Copeland or Juliette Williams on: +44 (0) 20 7359 0440.

Email: duncan.copeland@ejfoundation.org or juliette.williams@ejfoundation.org.