In contrast, the traditional fishermen in the Bay of Cadiz of southwestern Spain practice an age-old system of netting migratory tuna.

"Almadraba" is a spectacular method dating back more than 3,000 years to Phoenician times. The fishermen set out from the beach to cast out nets that go down as far as 23 meters (yards).

When the tuna appear in sufficient number on their migration across the Strait of Gibraltar to reproduce in the Mediterranean, the fishermen draw up the nets and haul their enormous catch aboard.

Many of the Almadrabas fishermen have today disappeared from the Mediterranean, environmentalists note, lamenting the demise of a method which respects the sea and its fauna.

Those fishermen who do remain have joined forces with the ecologists after being made victims of overfishing.

In the Strait of Gibraltar and the local ports of Barbate, Zahara de los Atunes, Tarifa and Conila, the tuna season — which opened in April — is about to come to an end.

It has not been a prosperous one.

By late May only 3,787 tuna had been caught, down from 8,390 in 2000 — "a disaster," according to Marta Crespo, who manages the local fishing organization.

Only the best-placed survive around Cadiz, where the tuna hug the coast to avoid the strong currents common to the middle of the strait.

At Barbate, freezer ships from Japan come to load up the merchandise directly. The choicest pieces, such as the exquisite flesh from the tuna's stomach, will be dispatched by plane from the tiny local airport, to be served up as a delicacy only hours later and across the world.

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