Study: Overfishing of tuna still a problem

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LONDON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Tuna boats operating in the Mediterranean Sea continue to catch many more fish than they report as required by law, a U.S. study says.

A survey commissioned by the Pew Environment Group found 140 percent more blue fin tuna meat from the Mediterranean entered world markets in 2010 than was reported as caught, the BBC reported Monday.

The Pew Charitable Trusts are headquartered in Philadelphia. The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of the trusts.

New measures were instituted two years ago by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas aimed at curtailing over-fishing but there were still holes in the system, the Pew survey found.

"And as you can see, they clearly haven't fixed the problem -- in fact, the gap [between the reported and total catches] has increased, which is a pretty clear indication that they need to do a much better job of making sure that the catch reports track the quota," Pew's Lee Crockett, who directs the group's Atlantic tuna work, told BBC News.

More than 38,000 tons of tuna from the Mediterranean was traded internationally against a Total Allowable Catch quota of 29,082 tons, the Pew survey found.