Bluefin tuna quotas: a step closer towards fair distribution?

PRESS RELEASE
April 5 2024

The group made up of the Syndicat des Petits Métiers d’Occitanie, the Plateforme de la petite pêche artisanale, the Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), the Comité départemental des pêches du VAR and the Prud’homie des pêcheurs de la Ciotat (Bouches du Rhône) has applauded the decision on 28 March by the Administrative Court of Appeal (ACA) in Toulouse to uphold the annulment of a ministerial order setting out the arrangements for allocating the bluefin tuna quota granted to France for 2017. More than 7 years after going to court to challenge the legality of the allocation of  bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) quota, the group has not waited in vain. 

After an initial ruling in its favour in June 2021, followed by the appeal lodged by the State in September 2021, this result raises the hopes of many small-scale fishers who face an unbearable situation in terms of the distribution of fishing quotas. Large vessels often monopolise quotas, leaving small-scale fishers with little or nothing.

The ACA simply confirmed the Montpellier Court’s 2021 ruling: Article L. 921-2 of the French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code lacks a legal basis. It governs the allocation of fishing opportunities based on three criteria, namely producers’ track record, market trends and economic balance, ignoring the integration of the environmental criterion into national texts required by European regulations and specifically art. 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy, which states that “Member States shall use transparent and objective criteria, including environmental, social and economic criteria. 

The case of bluefin tuna is particularly emblematic of this unfair situation, with a national quota of nearly 7,000 tonnes almost entirely redistributed to Mediterranean industrial fishing for export.

Thanks to major management efforts, the bluefin tuna stock has been recovering over the past 10 years, and we can only congratulate ourselves on its good state today. This positive trend has led to an increase in the French quota from 3,226 tonnes in 2017 to 6,693 tonnes in 2024. However, its internal distribution is still very unbalanced between industrial and small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

The group hopes that this legal breakthrough regarding access to resources will have a tangible impact on the ground for the hundreds of fishers fighting for survival.

Read the full judgment in French: https://toulouse.cour-administrative-appel.fr/decisions-de-justice/dernieres-decisions/l-attribution-des-sous-quotas-de-peche-de-thon-rouge-en-zone-ocean-atlantique-et-mediterranee-doit-integrer-un-critere-environnemental

Contact: communications@lifeplatform.eu

Photo: Peix Nostrum