Cabinet to discuss new Tunisian fishing zone

A recent decision by the Tunisian authorities to claim an exclusive fishing conservation zone will be raised during a Cabinet meeting today.

The Tunisian decision is expected to further anger Maltese fishermen who are already upset after Libya declared a 62-mile conservation zone that effectively bans them from traditional fishing grounds.

The Maltese government has been holding talks with Libya over the matter for the past few months. So far, Libya has not provided the exact coordinates of the limits of its zone.

On June 21, the Tunisian Parliament discussed and adopted a resolution declaring an "exclusive economic zone" around its coast, according to reports in the Arabic press.

"We are in contact with the Tunisian authorities about the matter," Foreign Minister Michael Frendo told The Times yesterday.

The Foreign Minister said the Tunisians were "aware of our concerns", adding that he would raise the issue during today's Cabinet meeting.

MaltaToday, which carried the story yesterday, claimed that the government had only learned about the decision when the newspaper contacted the Foreign Affairs Ministry on Friday night.

When contacted yesterday, however, Dr Frendo strongly denied that the government had been "caught unawares", insisting that it had "come to know that the decision had been in the offing a few days before".

A report in La Presse, a Tunisian daily, said Parliament had given its go-ahead to a zone that went beyond territorial waters but which fell under national jurisdiction and through which, for example, entry to polluting ships could be prohibited.

Webmanagercenter, a portal for Tunisian business in French, quoted Tunisian National Defence Minister Hédi M'henni saying that the creation of an exclusive economic zone conformed with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Similar reports appeared in the Moroccan press and other Tunisian newspapers. Other Mediterranean countries, such as Morocco, Spain, France, Croatia, Algeria and Cyprus had also declared such a zone, the reports noted.

Tunisia's claim over an exclusive zone, however, will further reduce the area available for Maltese fishermen given the close proximity of the two countries.

Local fishermen who fish for tuna using long lines have claimed that Libya's declared preservation area would close the doors to them and allow only Ricardo Fuentes, the Spanish fishing firm to operate in its waters.

According to a September 2004 industry intelligence report by Advanced Tuna-Ranching Technologies (ATRT), a Spanish-based, tuna-farming consulting company, Fuentes has been operating in Tunisian waters for years.

The Fuentes Group is blamed by the Worldwide Fund (WWF) for depleting blue-fin tuna from the Mediterranean. The international NGO mentions Fuentes in various reports and considers the group to be a main player in the multi-million euro industry which is coming under further pressure by the increased demand for tuna from Japan.

WWF have repeatedly claimed that tuna catches in the Mediterranean go beyond the quotas established by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

Improved business links between Libya and Tunisia in the tuna ranching and tuna-fattening business were highlighted recently in Tunisian press reports. The two North African countries signed a cooperation agreement last May making it possible for the two nations to strike private partnerships in the "fisheries and tuna fattening industry".

The ATRT report states that RH Marine - a company owned by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi (the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi) - has been giving logistical support to Fuentes' vessels and tuna spotting aircraft operating inside Libyan territorial waters. "The relationship between Francisco Fuentes and Mourad Trabelsi (the brother-in-law of Tunisian President Ben Ali and owner of Tunisian Tuna SL, operator of the second most powerful tuna fishing fleet in Tunisia) goes far beyond their Tunisian tuna ranching partnership," the report states.

"Fuentes's strategic alliance with Trabelsi allows Fuentes's fishing fleets to freely operate inside and outside Libyan territorial waters. It was indeed Mr Trabelsi who brokered Fuentes Group's relationship with Libya-based R.H. Marine Services Co., owned by Seif al-Islam."

The Fuentes Group on its own has an annual turnover in excess of R200 million, with Japanese partners Mitsubishi Corp., Maruha Corp., Kanetomo and Mitsui backing it with financial support and logistics. The ATRT report can be downloaded from the internet.