European Commission has announced the launch of a major EU control campaign aimed at preventing a repeat of last year's overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin tuna by a number of EU Member States.

The launch of the Joint Deployment Plan (JDP), coordinated by the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA), marks the EU's determination to ensure that the fifteen-year recovery plan for the fishery, agreed within the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in November 2006.

Until such time as the fleet overcapacity has been reduced in line with the sustainable level of the resource, control and enforcement will continue to be a critical issue in the fishery. The Joint Deployment Plan announced today marks an unprecedented effort, in terms of both the scale of operations, and the technical means deployed.

The plan will bring together the resources of the seven main Member States involved in the fishery – Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain – and will cover all stages in the market chain, including controls at sea, onshore, and at fattening farms.

Joe Borg, European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, commented, "I welcome the cooperation of the Member States in organising the joint control effort. However, they need to go much further to tackle the root of the problem with courage and determination by ensuring the necessary scraping of vessels till a sustainable balance is found between fishing capacity and fishing possibilities. Public funding is available under the European Fisheries Fund for vessel owners and crews affected by such scrapping. Financial support is also available to the fishing communities concerned to help them diversify their economies. The Commission will do all it can to help the Member States in their endeavour to return the fishery to ecological, economic and social sustainability."

What is the Community Fisheries Control Agency
The Community Fisheries Control Agency will function at the highest levels of excellence and transparency with a view to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of its operation, and develop the necessary confidence of actors involved. For that purpose, the Agency will act as a bridge builder as well as a service provider, promoting best practices in the field of control and inspection.

The Agency shall also propose all relevant indicators and tools which will prove to be useful for the performance review, in accordance with principles and objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy.
The Community Fisheries Control Agency coordinates joint inspection and control activities involving 13 large patrol vessels, 36 coastal patrol vessels and 16 aircraft. There will be 14 campaigns at sea involving in all 30 inspectors representing overall 160 patrol days. 25 joint inspections involving 50 inspectors are planned in the ports concerned. Commission inspectors will also be involved in 32 inspection visits both at sea and in ports.

What is the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. The organization was established at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries, which prepared and adopted the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas [download the Basic Texts, including the Convention, 389Kb], signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1966. After a ratification process, the Convention entered formally into force in 1969.