The bluefin tuna, prized for producing the world’s best and most expensive sushi, is facing extinction through overfishing by French and Spanish fleets, scientists have warned.

The iconic species is renowned for its ability to accelerate faster than a Porsche, but has proved unable to escape the giant nets and lines of southern Europe’s tuna fleets.

They have spent the past 10 years hunting the remnants of what was once one of the Atlantic’s most common marine predators, flouting quotas and disregarding scientific warnings, say the researchers.

In a review they have described the management of the Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery as an “international disgrace” and warn that the species is facing a population crash from which it may never recover.

Bluefins can reach nearly 1,500lb in weight and are renowned for their fighting ability when caught on rod and line. They are so large that the killer whale is the only marine predator to hunt them.

However, research by the Madrid-based International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) carried out ahead of a critical meeting next month to set new quotas, has found that European fishermen, mostly from southern countries such as France, Spain and Italy, are landing about 60,000 tons of bluefin tuna a year, more than double the European Union quota of 28,000 tons set in 2006.

They also warn that the quota was set twice as high as it should have been, with 15,000 tons being the maximum that should have been allowed.

The findings will provoke a diplomatic row because the Mediterranean, where most of the fish are caught, is the main spawning ground for bluefin tuna throughout the Atlantic. It means the overfishing there has caused a catastrophic drop in populations off America, where there is also a fishery.

There are several species of tuna. The tinned variety usually encountered by consumers are mostly skipjack or albacore tuna which are also overexploited, but the bluefin is the closest to extinction.

The booming global demand for sushi means that a single fish can be worth more than £20,000. British sushi restaurants take a little of this trade but the biggest markets are in Spain and Japan.

Such high prices have spurred southern Europe’s fishermen to employ extraordinary techniques, including using spotter planes to find fish.

Rebecca Lent, the US official who will lead the American delegation to next month’s ICATT meeting, said she wanted the fishery to be scientifically managed. “This fishery is facing collapse and needs to be protected,” she said. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently voted for the fishery to be shut down.

Britain is likely to support a sharp cut in quotas and may also back a ban. A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We want quotas in line with scientific advice and stronger enforcement.”

It is unclear whether science-backed measures will succeed in the face of opposition from southern Europe’s pro-fishing nations, whose obstinacy has prompted conservationists to dub ICCAT the International Conspiracy to Catch All the Tuna.

Willie Mackenzie, a fisheries campaigner with Greenpeace, said: “Only by closing the fishery and by creating marine reserves in spawning grounds can the species be given a fighting chance.”

The decline of the bluefin is just one aspect of a population crash affecting many large marine species. A study in the journal Science last year warned that the great sharks were on the edge of extinction. Since 1972 the number of black-tip sharks has fallen by 93%, tiger sharks by 97% and bull sharks, dusky sharks and smooth hammerheads by 99%.

A paper published in Nature four years ago showed that populations of large predatory fish such as marlin and swordfish have declined by 90%.

Last week a US report warned of a 50% decline in the Alaskan pollock population. This is the world’s largest fishery with exports providing many of the fish products eaten in Britain and Europe. Another study found that populations of blue whiting, more than 2m tons of which used to be caught each year, are at risk of collapse.

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