Tuesday, 18th November 2008 - 12:38CET

AFM nets Spanish boat fishing illegally

A Spanish fishing boat was last night intercepted whilst fishing illegally in Maltese waters, the AFM said.

A patrol boat located the fishing boat 22 nautical miles South-South-East of Malta. Maritime Squadron personnel instructed the crew to pick-up their prawn fishing-traps and the boat is now being escorted to Grand Harbour.

Previous article • Flying school has 100% safety record
Next article • Video: GRTU eyes possible tariffs solution after meeting PM

Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Patrick Pace (on 19/11/08)

Well done to our boys, of course they are doing a great job. Lets now hope that the trivial excuse that the captain of this spanish fishing boat is not taken seriously. He wants us to believe that they only caught about 20kg of catch in maltese waters....VERY convenient, and the local agents are saying that they can prove it...because the captain wrote so in his log book! How more childish can one get and how do they expect us to believe this fairy tale. We must take the neccessary action to keep our AFM sailors motivated to do their job, and not letting these spanish fishermen off lightly. We must send out a message of warning or Malta and its territorial waters will not be taken seriously in the future.

l.debono (on 18/11/08)

well done to the AFM operations centre and the maritime squadron.

keep up the good work boys

victor borg (on 18/11/08)

well done keep it up.that's another good job

A Fabri (on 18/11/08)

Well done AFM.
It's not fair tha thet EU imposes so much restrictions on our few fishermen, when large fishing boats from neighbouring countries are free to roam everywhere.

For sure they are to blame for the abuse of illegal fishing and so render the species extent in couple of years from the Mediterranean.
Last Sunday i was watching a dossier on rai as regards illegal fishing / fish stocks , although in Sicily there is some control, in calabria (bagnara) situation appears to be out of control, were naval officers seems to be afraid to inspect local fishermen....restrictions that were put in 2002 and by today they still really don't care.
It seems that EU is very strong with the weak, but weak with the strong to implement drastic measures against.

lgalea (on 18/11/08)

Congratulations.
At least they are not only catching illegal immigrants.

Erin Ciantar (on 18/11/08)

Good job boys.