While in the Mediterranean the population of Red Tuna begins to recover after years of overfloction, in Italy the business of intensive farms returns to grow.
To launch the alarm is Greenpeace Italia with its investigative unit, which in the new report “Red gold race” He denounces the lack of transparency, rules and controls in a sector in full expansion but with high environmental risk.
Red tuna: from species in crisis to resource to be exploited (again)
Thanks to international limits on fishing and the commitment of environmental associations, in recent years the population of red tuna has made progress, going from a state of almost extinction at minimum risk. However, this fragile balance risks being destroyed by a new boom in the fattening systems, which exploit the growing question of tuna without any protection for marine ecosystems or for the well -being of animals.
We managed to save the red tuna from the abyss – explains Alessandro Giannì, director of the campaigns of Greenpeace Italy – but now we risk going back if there are no serious rules for the management of this resource. Without transparency and sustainability, a new collapse of the species is around the corner.
The Greenpeace report brings to light a worrying picture: according to the official database of the Arcot (International Commission for the conservation of the Atlantic tuna), 13 fattening systems for red tuna would exist in Italy. But only three of these have accessible geographical coordinates, and as soon as you are a production capacity they report.
The most disturbing data concern the four plants with the largest declared production: 7,525 tons of tuna, equal to 80% of the entire tuna bred in Italy. These structures are registered in order to do no less than to the Ministry of Agriculture – but, according to the response of the same ministry in Greenpeace, they are not operational. In essence, they could be “ghost plants”, used only to communicate a virtual production capacity to the Mc.
Italy seems to use the Comcot database as a preventive booking system – says Giannì – to keep free the possibility of building future systems and assigning them tuna shares. This goes against the spirit and purposes of the Combet and lifts the suspicion that it is doing a favor to certain economic interests.
The Battipaglia case: a system without employees, nor away
The authorization is also confirmed by Greenpeace’s concerns, granted at the end of 2024, for a new fattening system in Battipaglia (Salerno), entrusted to the company Tuna Sud. The company, according to official data, has neither employees nor turnover and has obtained the green light without any assessment of environmental impact (via).
In the meantime, Fedagripesca relaunches the idea of an “Italian Red Tuna route”, suggesting that the sector could become a new hen with gold eggs. But at what price?
Greenpeace strongly asks for the introduction of clear and shared standards for the management of red tuna farms, to prevent the new race for “red gold” enriches a few unscrupulous entrepreneurs, at the expense of marine ecosystems and fish species already in difficulty.
The concrete risk is that public funding for aquaculture – also coming from European funds – end up in the wrong hands, fueling an opaque system, potentially fraudulent and completely disconnected from any principle of sustainability.
Red tuna, Mediterranean heritage or goods to be squeezed to the bone? The answer, once again, depends on the political choices and the desire to put the protection of the environment before profit.
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