At the ICCAT compliance meeting in Madrid last Friday it came to light that 560 tons of bluefin tuna caught by two Algerian vessels and caged in a Tunisian tuna fattening farm turned out to be illegal - due to lack of valid catch documents - and had to be released into the wild in January 2010, after having spent half a year in captivity.

A further 262 tons of tuna caged in Malta but imported from Algeria were deemed illegal and the animals were also subsequently released.

Japan, meanwhile, announced it is withholding from the market over 2,200 tons of frozen imported processed bluefin tuna of presumed illegal? origin - fish for which the ICCAT reporting procedures had not been properly respected. Most of the tuna had been imported from Maltese farms and fished by French and Italian vessels. Japan is considering sending the alleged non-compliant fish back to the EU.

In summary, around 3,000 tons of bluefin tuna were proven not to have been reported in line with ICCAT rules during 2009.