Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1426475
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2021 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Medina Ridge holds a half- stake in Medina Fisheries as well as in Intramed Fisher- ies. However, Travelways' and Medina Ridge's two directors, David Azzopardi and Joseph Caruana, are also directors of the tuna-farming company Fish & Fish. Azzopardi is one of its owners. Sources who spoke to this newspaper said that around 260kg of lampuki were found on board the Tunisian vessels, the latest incident in the on- going feud between Maltese lampuki fishers and Tunisian poachers. MaltaToday reported in 2019 that Maltese fishermen had seen their catches plundered by Tunisian counterparts in what turned out to be a verita- ble war on the high seas. Some Maltese fishers claim to have been threatened by the Tunisians wielding machetes and Molotov cocktails. They also documented the presence of a large, green Tunisian ves- sel, nicknamed the 'Bin Laden', which threatens to ram Mal- tese boats. An industry spokesperson told MaltaToday that the Trav- elways company had only pro- cessed the payment after cash was wired in from the Tunisian fishing vessel owners, for the court fines to be paid. But fishers who suffer the brunt of the Tunisian poaching war and who alerted MaltaTo- day to the transaction, were irked that a fishing industry player was servicing the poach- ers. The fishers also claim they think the poachers might be alerted to the locations of Maltese lampuki lines. This rumour is unverified and not connected to the company in question. "We have spent over 10 years trying to fix the situa- tion, and then you hear this? It's heart-breaking," one fish- er said. "That €10,000 fine was like a slap in the face. Just last week I went out there, and there were seven boats on my lines. I lost around €5,000 worth of fish that day alone." The situation has become un- bearable for the members of ths fishing community. "This could be very well my last year working with lampuki. I'm go- ing to lose my mind, and I have a family to feed." Sources within the fisheries directorate-general said gov- ernment representatives are currently in discussions with Tunisian and European coun- terparts during the annual General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) meeting. Maltese officials are pushing for lampuki Fishing Aggregat- ing Devices (FADs) – the floats they employ to catch their quarry – to be monitored by the European Fisheries Control Agency's (EFCA) inspection vessel, the Lundy Sentinel. EU fisheries inspectors use the 61m Lundy Sentinel as a platform for the monitoring, boarding and inspection of fishing boats as well as associ- ated transport and support ves- sels. The British-flagged Lundy Sentinel was built in 2015. The vessel also has the capa- bility of launching up to three boarding boats. The GFCM session was concluded on Sat- urday. kazzopardi@mediatoday.com.mt Fishers think poachers are told where lampuki lines are located