AD, stated Chairperson Arnold Cassola, strongly deplores the government’s
stand against the EU’s proposal to halt for two years the exploitation of the
Bluefin Tuna to ensure that the species is not driven to extinction due to
unsustainable pressure. The population of the breeding tuna in 2007 was only a quarter of the level of that of 50 years ago, most of the decline occuring in recent years.
The Maltese Government’s opposition to the EU Commission proposal, added Carmel Cacopardo AD Spokesman on Sustainable Development and Local Government, not only shows a lack of an environmental commitment but also exposes the government’s willingness to back short term economic profit at the expense of natural resources.The livelihood of Maltese fishermen who use traditional fishing methods is being threatened by such behaviour.
On the basis of the precautionary principle established in International Fora
and enshrined in Malta’s Environment Protection Act, the Maltese Government should have supported the EU’s proposal thereby protecting blue fin tuna from the unscrupulous exploitation by large scale industrial fishing. There is no need to wait for more detailed scientific studies, concluded Carmel Cacopardo, to arrive to the obvious conclusion that unless there is an immediate halt to bluefin tuna exploitation this species will become extinct shortly.
Ralph Cassar
PRO
Blog ta' Carmel Cacopardo 
If one has some knowledge about fishing, one can easily see the reason why from a certain year fish stock decreased intensively.
The reason is the introduction of catching tuna by super long nets.
When a traditional fisherman used to catch 50 tuna, he used to say that he had a good season as with lines and hooks they may have been catching just 0.000000000000001 % of the fish stock.
With the introduction of fishing by extemely long nets, (not by fishermen but by businessmen) the catch was getting so big that in a matter of a few years the stock has gone down close to extinction.
So, the EU should ban only net fishing and not line fishing by locals.
It is stupid to have 2 holes in the bucket (one big and one small) and to avoid losing all the water, you close the small one only.
This is the lobbying in the EU which is run by big business men maybe also including big shots.
So for truth sake, stop fishing by nets and let the poor fisherman catch his share as surely the percentages vary from a fraction to close to 100%.
If they want to tackle the problem they have to kill the spider and not clean the web!