The police are investigating two clashes between fishermen towing tuna pens to the island and conservationists, which took place over the past two weeks.

Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici made the announcement in Parliament yesterday.

Contrary to routine investigations related to the sea, which usually fall under the Valletta district police, sources said these two cases were being probed by the Administrative Law Enforcement unit of the police.

The armed forces are also drawing up a routine report of their involvement in the clashes, particularly when they had to intervene in a Greenpeace protest in which the conservation group tried to free tuna from a pen two weeks ago.

Two patrol boats and a helicopter were sent to assist fishermen who had sent a distress call. The AFM used water hoses to ward off the activists trying to tear the nets open from dinghies while their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, was stopped from ramming the pen when its path was blocked.

Together with their account, the AFM would also be handing to the police a cache of confiscated blades allegedly used by the activists to free the tuna, sources said.

The police are also probing a second clash involving the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, during which hundreds of tuna were freed and two divers injured.

A marine consultant, Reuben Lanfranco, had told The Times the activists could face charges of piracy, as defined by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The captain of the Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, welcomed the prospective legal action, saying it would be an opportunity for the conservation group to expose the local tuna industry.

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