Fishermen who earn their livelihood from drag net fishing have berthed their trawlers alongside the fisher market near the entrance of Grand Harbour ahead of a press conference this afternoon where they intend to announce action over pending problems with the government.

Eleven large fishing boats have gathered in the harbour, watched over by an AFM patrol boat.

A spokesman for the Fisheries Cooperative said the fishermen – who operate 22 licensed trawlers – were recently ordered to stop their activities because of a dispute over the interpretation of the law on the type of nets they can use.

But the fihermen also have a bigger problem over the zones where they are allowed to fish.

The spokemsan explained that the zones are allocated by the European Union on the basis of studies submitted by the Maltese government. However the government had submitted a 1970s study by FAO which was unrelated to the needs of the fishermen.

As a result, the spokesman said, the Maltese fishermen had been assigned zones which were not suitable for commercial fishing.

This problem, the spokesman said, had been 'dragging' since 2006 and the cooperative was insisting that a proper study should be submitted to the EU with urgency.

Drag net fishermen catch some €1.2m worth of fish every year. They employ some six persons on each of their trawlers.