Thus, the EU Member States involved in this fishing activity have called back to ports the purse seiners since their quotas have been exhausted.
Fishing activities are still performed by Croatian small scale vessels, which continue to fish only in the Adriatic but are expected to end soon.
The European Commission is pleased to note that no major issues, that may indicate systemic overfishing or illegal fishing activities of Bluefin Tuna by EU vessels, have been detected so far. It also notes that no report of suspicious activities has been received by NGOs.
A full and explicit report of possible non-compliance activities, based on a detailed examination of the data that are collected, will be prepared by the European Commission after the official closure of the fishing season.
The European Commission control team - together with the team of the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) - is now focusing on the caging operations in Spain and Malta, in close co-operation with the competent national authorities in order to ensure that during the caging activities no Bluefin Tuna quota will be overshot.
