Artisanal fishermen in the south of Spain who work in the Strait of Gibraltar are demanding a quota for bluefin tuna from their government.
The appearance of algal blooms on the Atlantic coast of Cadiz in 2015 has decimated traditional stocks of fish such as octopus and their feed species of molluscs.
As a result local fishermen are looking for other varieties of fish to replace their usual catch.
Stocks of bluefin tuna have rebounded in recent years and are now in plentiful supply, they claim.
Nicolás Fernández Muñoz, director of the Organization of Artisanal Fishermen Producers (OPP72) has requested “that the central government grants fishing opportunities for bluefin tuna for fishermen from Conil, Barbate, Tarifa and La Atunara, because it is the only species that we find in the Strait.”
He added: “With the increase in the bluefin tuna quota, a percentage of this increase should be shared to meet the needs of artisanal fisheries.”
Bluefin tuna are one of the most important fish in the Mediterranean – both for their commercial value, and for the role they play as top predators in marine ecosystems.
However, overfishing and poor management pushed bluefin tuna populations to the edge of extinction, with stocks plummeting by 85 percent in just a few years.
A concerted effort by the World Wildlife Fund and others has allowed the fish to stage a remarkable recovery.
In 2009, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) – the inter-governmental organization responsible for managing tuna stocks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean – adopted a science-based recovery plan that put strict controls on tuna fishing.
As a result, bluefin tuna have grown in size and number, with the overall biomass in the Mediterranean increasing by around 400 percent.
Bluefin tuna can grow to over 2m and 250kg, but giant specimens almost twice as long and three times as heavy have been recorded; they can accelerate up to 70km/h (43 mph) in short bursts.
A leading Spanish politician revealed that Madrid plotted to use the Brexit referendum result in 2016 to take back Gibraltar.
José Manuel García-Margallo warned the current Spanish government against giving up on “co-sovereignty” of The Rock in an interview with La Razon.
The MEP rued that Spain had failed to seize the “golden opportunity” of Brexit and instead had allowed Gibraltar to become the “Cayman Islands in southern Europe” due to its tax policy.
He slammed Spain and the EU for allowing Gibraltar to have a personal income tax rate and a corporate tax rate half of Spain's.