To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the UK voted for or against the decision made at the recent meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna to set a quota of 22,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna in 2009; and what the Government's position is on a quota for blue fin tuna catch. (243173)

The decision to set a total allowable catch (TAC) of 22,000 tonnes for the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic blue fin tuna fishery in 2009 was agreed by consensus at the meeting and therefore not subject to a vote.

While the UK would have ideally preferred the ICCAT to adopt a smaller TAC for blue fin tuna, the controls that have now been put in place for this fishery, coupled with the plan for contracting parties to demonstrate that they can comply with the plan or have their quotas suspended, mean that the fishery should now be effectively managed in order to prevent the over-fishing that has occurred in previous years.