Guernsey will investigate whether local commercial and recreational fishermen may be allowed to catch very limited numbers of eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna.

The bluefin tuna is native to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, but is extinct in the Black Sea.

It's been fished throughout history and the Romans set up commercial ports for processing tuna.

Over fishing has seen it rated as in danger of extinction, and it is still subject to strict quotas.

It's been seen in greater numbers in local waters over recent years and Jersey marine officers have been tagging them, in a project in collaboration with Exeter University.

Guernsey's Committee for Economic Development is considering the possibility of a limited quota of bluefin tuna being landed by local fishermen.

To enable this to happen, it will have to join the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

The department says it's early days, and warns that any quota obtained is likely to be very small as the UK's quota this year is 65 tonnes.