[attach id=259089 size="medium"]Fishing and leisure craft competing for space at Birżebbuġa.[/attach]

On European Maritime Day (May 21), commissioners, ministers from coastal nations and an array of marine experts converged in Valletta for a two-day event that was open to all.

This year’s theme of the annual event, now in its sixth year, was sustainable maritime tourism. In celebration of Europe’s maritime community, the exhibition hall at the Mediterranean Conference Hall hosted information points for marine-based projects and tourism literature on Baltic Sea states. There were high-level political debates as well as more practical exchanges between maritime stakeholders.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, who later took time out from the conference for tuna quota talks with the Maltese Government, opened the proceedings.

Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella spoke of Malta’s relatively short but diverse, and in some cases unique, coastline. However, he said, if carrying capacity is exceeded or if the coastline is not managed well, this could present problems.

Despite talk of moving away from package holidays, unless transport strategies were adjusted, the potential may not be reached

Vella noted that there is still space to increase maritime tourism within a framework while recognising that aquaculture, wind farms, marinas and reclamation, if done close to the coast, could exacerbate intensification.

Minister for Economic Investment and Small Businesses Chris Cardona touched on the importance of surveillance, not just to monitor drug and arms trafficking or immigration, but to help protect the environment. He stressed the need for an integrated maritime policy.

MEP Gesine Meissner, rapporteur on the proposal for a directive on marine spatial planning and integrated coastal management, spoke on the challenge of tapping the maritime economy to the full while pre-serving the character of the sea on which we depend.

Wrapping up the morning session, Damanaki said sustainable maritime tourism was a pillar of Europe’s marine strategy.

Referring to the Blue Growth approach, the Commissioner listed five promising areas that “we can bet on… and get rid of bottlenecks in” such as tourism, renewable energy, aquaculture, sea-bed mining and marine biotechnology – also known as ‘blue biotech’.

The cruise liner sector has tripled in the past decade and is still growing, yet the market is shifting to a more developed tourism product. Other countries could follow the example set by Malta and Greece in promoting their local food products for tourism.

Ireland has just concluded public consultations on its Wild Atlantic Way touring route, with discovery points to be launched next year. Linking a ‘necklace of lighthouses’ is another tourism project intended to enhance Irish coastal tourism.

Tourists looking for more authentic experiences that mass tourism can provide may also have political, social or environmental concerns about destinations, and are more likely to select providers who share their concern, according to Professor Larry Dwyer, president of the International Association of Tourism Economics.

DG Fisheries and Maritime Affairs director general Lowri Evans commented that despite talk of moving away from package holidays, unless transport strategies were adjusted, the potential may not be reached.

With an eye on climate change and rising seas, tall buildings on the Dutch coast are now being designed so that their bottom levels can be filled with concrete to deal with rising waters over time and the building itself becomes part of the sea defences.

Offshore wind projects in Europe are expected to grow by 30 per cent by 2020. Evans stressed the need to find space for and manage all these projects while leaving room for existing maritime activities.

“We also want to make sure that funding opportunities are maximised, she said, touching on the need to streamline projects to meet the aims of end-users. “This has not always been the case in the past and we have to admit that.”

In future, Europeans will be relying more and more on aquaculture for the fish they consume, to the extent that the fishing community must be helped to adjust to forms of fishing tourism.

European guidelines for aquaculture have been issued and member states are in the process of submitting their national plans for aquaculture development. So far, there is a clear strategy for the Atlantic and Adriatic regions, where ideas for funding may also be relevant for other areas.

Offshore wind farms that include aquaculture might prove to be more efficient in using the same spot.

Securing energy supply of the union by promoting marine energy sources is one of the foremost objectives. Former Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg spoke of finding ways to translate insularity and lack of connectivity into an asset for blue growth.

The Commission’s DG Environment director general Karl Falkenberg addressed the conference on how marine spatial planning would give clarity on what could be done, where and how.

“The key challenge is sustainability,” he said. “We cannot undertake actions where we know it will create an imbalance in the ecosystem. However, we cannot wait for all the data to come in. In the absence of information you take a risk with caution, often using examples from other countries.”

Ecosystems do not recognise man-made borders, so we must use collective knowledge and cross-border exchange on best management practice.

In a workshop during the afternoon session, Laurence Mee, director of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, neatly described the paradox of the sea being “an unseen environment that we’re asking people to care about”.

“Often we hide the fact that we are making a trade-off,” said Mee, pointing out that the fisheries of six Black Sea countries were on the verge of collapse. Yet public perception lags behind, with people believing that industrial pollution is still the worst problem for our seas even though this has been surpassed by over-fishing. To which he adds: “We are not communicating our science properly”.

Where there are no clear solutions there will be compromises, yet the ecosystem approach does shine some hope with its recognition of connections between land, air, sea and people.

“The more we damage the ability of the ecosystem to provide services, the more it will affect human welfare. Maintaining resilience in the system will prepare us against shocks.”

Designing our seas must be done with great care. “We have to monitor the environment’s response to the first steps of our vision,” concluded Mee. He remarked that less than 10 per cent of European seas have been properly mapped.

Freshwater and marine ecosystem branch co-ordinator (UNEP) Jacqueline Alder spoke of pricing natural capital. “You can value it, but until you put a price on it, industry will not be so motivated to preserve it.”

A series of workshops organised by stakeholders the following day included a look at sustainable shipping by market-based measures and striking the right balance between marine protected areas and nautical tourism.

Another workshop dealt with regional co-operation on offshore wind energy in Europe.

It is crucial that rational use of marine space is made for and by these many activities with such an evident need for an integrated policy. Maritime coastal planning can prove to be more complex than terrestrial planning as it takes place three-dimensionally.

www.msfd.eu

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