Warning that bluefin tuna 'face extinction'

BLUEFIN tuna are being pushed to the brink of extinction in the Mediterranean by far too many fishing vessels pursuing the remaining fish stocks, a report warned yesterday.

A study for conservation charity WWF says there needs to be an urgent reduction of the fleet, which has almost twice the fishing capacity of current quotas set for the increasingly threatened fish.

The yearly catch potential of hi-tech vessels is three and a half times the recommended level, the report says.

According to the conservationists, the "unsustainable" situation is largely the result of massive overfishing of the Mediterranean by what is known as "purse seine" fishing, in which nets are set around the shoal and then closed like a drawstring purse.

This method is fuelled by the increase in tuna farms, which take the catch and fatten the fish in cages for six months.