(MADRID) - The government of Spain, home to Europe's largest fishing fleet, Friday protested the "disproportionate" decision by the European Commission to shut down industrial tuna fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.

The government "rejects as disproportionate the decision by the European Commission to stop tuna fishing by the Spanish seiners," the environment ministry said in a statement.

It said Spain has only six tuna seiners and that these have only caught 28.8 percent of their quota, taking just 432 tonnes of the 1,524 authorised by the Commission.

The European Commission said earlier Friday it took the decision to impose the ban for the rest of this year because quotas for 2008 were nearly full.

The move targets fishing by purse seiners, which encircle whole schools of fish and account for 70 percent of all bluefin tuna hauls.

Under the decision, purse seiners from Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta will be banned from fishing bluefin tuna from June 16 while purse seiners from Spain will not be able to cast their nets from June 23.

There are currently 134 tuna seiners in the European Union: 87 in Italy, 36 in France and six in Spain.

The ministry said Spain has informed Brussels of the level of its catch on a daily basis.

"The Commission has used erroneous information and adopted a measure which, at least for the Spanish fleet, is inadmissable," the ministry said.

Environment Minister Elena Espinosa intends to raise the issue of "this unilateral decision" with her EU colleagues at a meeting in Luxembourg June 23, the statement said.

She "is also studying other possible legal actions against the arbitrary measure," including the possibility of taking the issue before the European Court of Justice, it said.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.