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Karl Schembri
Malta has warned the Libyan government to suspend its new exclusive fishing zone extension declared earlier this month. The new zone is believed to effectively ban Maltese fishermen from the high seas south of Malta.
The episode re-enacted memories of the tension between Dom Mintoff and Mu’Ammar Gaddafi in the early eighties, when Libya dispatched navy vessels to oil rigs in disputed waters operating on Malta’s behalf.
On Friday night the Foreign Ministry sent an official note to the Libyan government protesting that the 62 nautical miles extension affected historical fishing grounds of Maltese fishermen using traditional fishing methods consistent with conservation policies.
Foreign Minister Michael Frendo told MaltaToday yesterday that the Libyans’ announcement of a new fishing area “raised serious concerns” for the Maltese government.
“We’re taking up this issue on the diplomatic and political fronts,” Frendo said. “We have asked the Libyans to specify the exact coordinates of their fishing zone because so far we don’t know where the zone starts and ends.”
The Libyan government informed the United Nations on 9 April of its decree declaring a fishing area, in the areas to the north of its territorial waters, which falls under its jurisdiction and sovereignty.
The Libyans informed the UN Secretary General that the decision was taken because of the “country’s commitment to protect the marine environment and to preserve its marine living resources, and in contributing to guarantee a rational and sustainable exploitation which seeks to protect fisheries from illegal, unorganised and undeclared fishing”.
This means any kind of fishing is forbidden in the area unless an authorisation is granted according to the laws and regulations of the Jamahiriya.
In its official note to Tripoli, the Maltese government requested the suspension of the application and enforcement of this decree and called on the Libyans to hold discussions on coordinating a common approach to the preservation of fisheries in the area.
The question of the exact coordinates of the 62-mile fishing zone is of utmost importance for the Maltese government to determine to what extent it encroaches within the Mediterranean basin.
The incident evokes Libya’s 1973 declaration claiming sovereignty over the Gulf of Sirte – a key arena for US-Libyan conflicts in the 80s and 90s, with its northern flank connected with the high seas.
According to this controversial declaration, the Gulf is part of Libyan territory providing a baseline from which Libyan territorial sea is measured, while the waters enclosed within the Gulf are Libyan internal waters and therefore an integral part of Libya.
In retaliation, the US had protested and confronted Libya militarily by sending its Sixth Fleet provocatively into the Gulf in 1981, where it shot down two Libyan warplanes intensifying its air and sea raids in 1986.
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