Turkish fishing vessels which approached the Karpas shores have caught the attention of the Turkish Cypriot Biologist Association. It has issued a statement regarding the claim of the fishing vessels’ skippers that they had approached the Karpas shores due to “stormy weather”. In its statement the Biologists Association expressed its doubts about the cause of this approach and stated that these boats from Turkey that are used for tuna fishing are here for only one reason “tuna fishing”, ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
The Biologists Association points out that the statements by the Security Forces and related Ministry in which they claim that these boats approached the tip of the Karpas peninsula was due to bad weather are not convincing as their explanation leaves out the very reason why they were cruising near Karpas Peninsula in the first place:
“These boats are here for one reason, Atlantic Blue Tuna fishing. The May-June period is the time when these fish reproduce and this only happens in Mexican shores and Karpas Peninsula.
This type of tuna are in the category of endangered species and they only live in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean and they reproduce only in May and June every year in Karpas Peninsula and Mexican shores.
Turkey is a member of “The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas” since 2003 and this commission limits the amount of Atlantic Tunas that a member country can fish.
Moreover international inspection of our country’s north shores is not possible as the north is not recognised so these vessels come to our shores undetected by the international inspection system and most probably are here for tuna fishing.
Therefore we don’t believe the cause of their appearance in our shores is “bad weather“and we call all authorities to take action against the vessels and the tunas to be protected especially during their reproduction period”.
