local news


The scene outside Marsaxlokk harbour on Saturday

Tuna crisis still unsolved

Yesterday was a long hot day for Maltese and Sicilian fishermen as representatives of both sides met in a bid to solve the crisis involving a cage-full of live tuna that was hijacked by Maltese fishermen.

At the time of going to print, the Italian side had presented an undisclosed proposal that was still being evaluated by their Maltese counterparts.

The heated talks, which took place at the Department of Fisheries in Valletta, were attended by Italian ambassador Giancarlo Riccio and the permanent secretary in the foreign affairs ministry, Saviour Stellini among others. Lawyer, Gianella Caruana Curran is acting as legal advisor to the Maltese fishermen.

The talks focused on the fate of the caged tuna, which became the centre of controversy after a row over its ownership broke out at sea last Thursday.

Meanwhile the tuna pen was towed in yesterday by a Civil Protection vessel to safer waters just off the Delimara coast, at ‘Xrobb l-Ghagin’, with an Armed Forces patrol boat keeping a watchful eye on it at all times. Numerous Maltese fishing boats also accompanied the moving pen.

The pen holds almost 400 tuna fish that would fetch around Lm150,000 on the market.

A fisherman who spoke to MaltaToday after coming off his boat at Delimara, said that the issue came to a head on Thursday after Maltese fisherman Joe Bugeja had spotted a school of tuna.

"When the Italians noticed the catch that Bugeja had netted they tried to circle the whole school with their nets," he said. "Bugeja refused to budge and an Italian boat tried to ram him. It was at this point that the rest of us went to help him."

The Maltese fishing boats had to cut their lines to go to Bugeja’s rescue with the consequence that they lost their catches and damaged their own nets. To compensate for the damages they suffered the Maltese fishermen cut loose a pen holding tuna caught by the Italians.

Observers have long been saying that the tuna situation may escalate dangerously as the catches of Maltese fishermen have been dwindling due to the fishing methods adopted by Italian fishermen.

The Italians use spotter planes to pinpoint the tuna schools and then encircle them using purseine nets. The nets ensure that whole schools are captured alive.

On the other hand, Maltese fishermen use long lines – ‘konzijiet’ – to fish for tuna. Malta has signed an international convention banning the use of purseine nets.