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There are few things I like on my plate more than a strip or two of bluefin tuna sashimi, succulent in its red-raw elegance.

That's why I was hoping the , which concluded its annual meeting yesterday, would prove to be that rare thing - a fisheries management body that does what its scientists recommend.

Last week I floated the idea that Iccat might suspend fishing on the beleaguered Mediterranean bluefin, as an independent expert panel had recommended earlier in the year, to protect the rapidly declining stock while member nations sorted out the problems they clearly have with the size of their fleets and making them stay within the law.

. Iccat scientists had recommended a catch quota next year [pdf link]; Iccat voted for 22,000. Scientists said the fishery had to close during the May and June spawning season; Iccat members closed it for just 15 days of that period.

According to accounts from the meeting, the European Commission pushed most assertively of any party there for higher quotas.

Yet EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg as a move to "strengthen decisively" measures to rebuild the stock.
Unless the laws governing mathematics and biology have suddenly changed, I am struggling to understand how.

The scientists that Iccat engages to study the state of the fisheries produce forecasts of what will happen in many different imaginary futures with various combinations of measures in place.

The most significant of their conclusions is that the only scenarios where the decline stops and recovery begins are those where fishing is banned during the spawning season of May and June.

And that is precisely what we do not have.

When I speak with the European Commission's fisheries spokeswoman Nathalie Charbonneau, she explains that the decisions on the catch quotas and the length of the season are part of a "comprehensive package" which also includes mandatory inspections of boats over a certain size, a freeze on the size of the fleet in the region, and moves to punish rule-breaking more effectively.

All true, and all good; although the reality is that with each country retaining responsibility for sanctioning its own fleet, a slap on the wrist is still just as likely as a spell in prison.

And it is no substitute for closure during the months of spawning.

The US, which argued for the scientists' advice to be implemented in full, . Delegation chief Rebecca Lent said it "continues to put the species as a whole in jeopardy".

I hope I am wrong, but I think it lessens by quite a way my chances of being able to enjoy the odd slice of raw bluefin into my dotage.

, he explained that "for sure we are friends of fish; but still more, we are friends of fishermen".

And I think that says it all; except that the fishermen, too, must founder when there is nothing left for them to catch.

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