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James Debono
Fishermen speaking to MaltaToday have expressed their outrage at being denied from fishing in the Marsaskala area due to the berthing of two US military vessels.
For the past three weeks the US military vessels PFC Eugene A. Obregon and PFC William B. Baugh have been anchored in Marsaskala. The three ships left Malta last Friday.
The vessels, described as prepositioning vessels, are usually used to carry various military and non-military cargo for the US Navy. Both ships have participated in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A fisherman told MaltaToday that they had been given orders by the authorities “not to approach the vessels. This area is usually used by fishermen and not by US military personnel.”
The visit by the US military vessels was criticised by the leftist group Graffitti that has invoked the right for freedom of information due to the secrecy surrounding this visit.
The secretary of the Fisherman’s Co-operative Karmenu Bugeja expressed his concern that the presence of the ships, apart from causing an inconvenience to fishermen, could cause damage to the Posidonia meadows in the area.
“This area is rich in deep sea fish and migratory fish and it should not be exposed to the presence of military ships,” Bugeja told MaltaToday.
Incidentally the area in which the military ships where anchored is also very close to the one identified by MEPA for the relocation of tuna penning activities. In fact this is the major concern of fishermen. “While military ships are here on a temporary basis, the proposed thirty tuna pens will leave a permanent impact,” Bugeja said.
“I have just returned from Brussels where they tell us that we should protect fishing stocks. Then in Malta we deplete fishing stocks through unsustainable tuna penning.”
jdebono@newsworksltd.com
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