Joseph M. Sammut MP (Labour), Valletta
Tuna fishing reports: Public shame for Malta
When is the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs going to get its act together and conduct its business in a competent and efficient manner? European Commission inspectors have submitted a report which states that the Malta Fisheries Division claimed a carryover from 2007 of live bluefin tuna with an estimated worth of €4.2 million. However, the inspectors say that these fish were never physically present in Maltese cages.
Does this mean that Malta is actively taking part in an international fraud, or is it just that the Ministry is so incompetent that the records are a total mess under the leadership of the Minister?
Furthermore, there are organisations, such as World Wild Life Fund, which allege that this chaos is confirmation that Malta is the hub for an international laundering of illegally caught tuna.
This summer allegations surfaced that there is a €100 million, 5,000 tonne discrepancy between Japan's declared imports from Malta in 2007/2008 and Malta's actual export capacity for that period.
The allegations have been strenuously denied by the ministry's minions who quoted a Moroccan boat as having caught 210 tonnes of tuna and delivered them to Maltese cages. This claim was also included in the official government declaration to the EU Commissioner for Fisheries, signed by the Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana. Obviously these figures were supplied by the Ministry to the PR.
Strangely, however, the Maltese government's own import declarations do not show any live tuna imported from Morocco.
These anomalies were duly confirmed by a report by ICCAT, the international tuna regulator, dated November 4, which shows no trace of the 210 tonnes from Morocco as a carryover from 2007.
How can the Minster for Resources and Rural Affairs allow such confusion and contradictions to make his ministry and, worse by far, our country, look so stupid or perhaps even dishonest on an international stage?
As I write, an ICCAT meeting is taking place which may settle some of the problems, but it is unavoidable that the conduct of the MRRA has brought shame to Malta.
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E Camilleri
Nov 28th 2008, 13:00
Disgusting if this is true, which I'm sure that at least part of it is, since it is public knowledge how overfished tuna is. Both the EU and several NGOs state that this species is overfished. The 'surplus' tuna must be sold somewhere, therefore a cover up must exist.
How unfair if Malta is providing a safe channel to sell 'surplus' tuna caught from the dwindling stock of the mediterrenean. Then when the EU bans tuna fishing, we would cry over the fact that the livelihood of fishermen will be lost, forgetting the most important fact that we were helping in eradicating a species.
J. Borg
Nov 28th 2008, 10:16
If the Authorities can mess this up to such extent
how much more are they messing up with the controls over the pollution that fish farms are generating.
Sure MEPA has everything under check.......we have learnt to know better
In the meantime, continue polluting to our long term detriment, whilst a few others and their influential friends continue to fatten their pockets.
Who is taking political and personal liability on the issue? Nobody?
Who is dutibound to ensure that there is accountability? Nobody?
Who is entrusted to govern this rock? Nobody!