Five incidents since start of tuna season

Maltese fishermen were finding it impossible to do their work because their lines were being cut by foreign tug-boats towing tuna cages, Fishermen's Cooperative secretary Raymond Bugeja said yesterday.

He said the latest incident, early yesterday morning, involved two foreign tug-boats with cages belonging to Maltese companies.

The fisheries department said it was seeking compensation on behalf of the fishermen.

Mr Bugeja is on board one of several fishing boats that have been involved in five separate incidents since the tuna season started on May 1. The season officially ends on July 10.

He said the long fishing lines used by Maltese fishermen were being cut or dragged by the foreign boats.

These problems would not help an already declining industry. According to the National Office of Statistics, local tuna catches last year had already gone down by 58 per cent over the landings for the previous year. A total of 188,693 kg of tuna were caught last year compared with 324,393 kg in 2000.

However, Fisheries Minister Ninu Zammit played down the incidents in parliament yesterday morning.

He said there had been five incidents this year, including one during the night between Tuesday and yesterday, but added they were nothing out of the ordinary.

They involved the kind of arguments, he said, that everyone had at their place of work.

Mr Bugeja said Maltese fishermen were not being allowed to work, their equipment was being destroyed and they were being made to leave the areas containing fish.

The situation, he said, was so precarious that most of the Maltese fishermen returned home yesterday evening.

He said that in the latest incident, two foreign tug-boats, carrying cages for Maltese companies, cut their lines.

In these cases, the Maltese fishermen had obtained a declaration in writing from personnel on the tug-boats stating that they were prepared to consider giving the fishermen compensation.

This was not the case on Monday, though, when the Spanish tug-boat Pegasus had dragged the Maltese fishermen's lines.

When approached, the captain made obscene gestures towards the fishermen and ignored their plea to stop. The Maltese fishermen felt the need to request AFM assistance.

Mr Bugeja said the increasing number of tuna cages in the region was adding to the problem because tug-boats were needed to tow them away. There are currently 20 cages in Malta.

He said he had persistently reported the incidents and damage to the director of fisheries.

Mr Bugeja said the Maltese authorities should be aware of what was happening and fishermen were calling on the fisheries ministry to send an official out with them to see things for himself.

This is not the first time that the concentration of activity in the area has caused problems.

A dispute between Maltese and Italian fishermen erupted last year when the Italians caught 45 tonnes of tuna lured to the surface by Maltese fishermen.

The Maltese called the AFM for assistance but alleged that the AFM boat fired shots at a Maltese fishing boat, a claim denied by the AFM.

Mr Bugeja said it was high time that a ministry representative accompanied the fishermen.

Only 72 Maltese boats are registered for tuna fishing, which means they are in a minority compared with their foreign counterparts, Mr Bugeja said.

Director of fisheries Anthony Gruppetta said when contacted that the directorate was filing reports of all the incidents and complaints.

Whenever reports were filed, the directorate sought out the contractor of the particular tug-boat and wrote to them on behalf of the fishermen requesting compensation.

The directorate, he said, was still trying to locate the contractors of the Pegasus.

Asked whether the directorate would be taking up the fishermen's request to send out an official, Dr Gruppetta said that the fisheries department did not have its own hardware and worked through the AFM.

He said there were problems because the sea was becoming increasingly busy with fishing boats.

He said there had been no physical incidents this year - unlike last year - proving that all the work which had been carried out following the incidents with the Italians had borne fruit.

In a statement issued yesterday, the National Fisheries Cooperative expressed concern over the future of Maltese and Gozitan fishermen.

It said that the problems for Maltese fishermen were becoming worse year after year.

The cooperative said that in the past three days fishermen had suffered losses and damages.

There had even been an incident in which the captain of a tug-boat did not give the fishermen time to remove their lines from the tuna cage being towed, and the fishermen had to vacate a spot where they had been fishing for the past 40 years.

The cooperative said it was too easy for cage owners to anchor their cages in Maltese waters.

It said the time had come for the authorities to help Maltese and Gozitan fishermen.