Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/881840
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2017 9 the bazuga from about 23 miles out. It's a prestigious fish and gets a good price on the market but in the last eight years or so, people have become obsessed with it and many leisure fishermen have start- ed going out in search of it in their cabin cruisers," said Caruana, add- ing that with so much competition, many fishermen, himself included, were choosing to stay home. "There are so many [leisure fish- ermen] that if you were to take the fishing sector as a whole I would say that they catch more fish than fishermen do," he said. Caruana also stressed that these hobbyists had no bag limits, be- cause they were not registered fishermen, but were still selling their fish to restaurants "illegally". Moreover, in addition to invad- ing prime fishing spots, Caruana said that amateur fishermen were also able to fish in areas that were very far out, unlike artisanal fisher- men. "Some of them are going up to 70 miles offshore on cabin cruisers," he said. "They're definitely fishing and they're also selling it. You have to spend a significant amount of money on diesel to go out that far." Another issue flagged by Carua- na was the fact that while enforce- ment and controls on fishermen had increased, amateur fishermen were not subject to such controls. "If a patrol boat sees a fishing vessel they'll approach it and ask to see logbooks, documents, and ask all sorts of questions, but if it's a cabin cruiser they just assume it has nothing to do with fishing," he said. Areas restricted because of div- ing were also a growing pressure on the fishing sector. "A couple of months ago I was stopped by the enforcement agency. The officer told me that I cannot deploy my fishing nets be- cause the area is for divers," one interviewed fishermen told the re- searchers. "I don't know how they expect me to earn my living. They are designating everywhere as a divers' area. A fisherman cannot work out at sea during the bad weather, so we need to find these sheltered ar- eas for fishing." 'Working on the land was not for me' Given that artisanal fishing has shown itself to be sustainable, the paper argues, it should not be de- prived of the necessary space, es- pecially when implementing poli- cies on protected areas. It notes that while it might be tempting for governments to push for "alternative livelihoods", this might not be a solution as some might be too old, or otherwise un- able to reinvent their personal skill set. "I do not speak English so tour- ism is not a good option for me because I will not be able to com- municate," said one fisherman. "I love my job and I go crazy if I don't go fishing. I tried to work on the land but I realized it's not for me," said another artisanal fisher- man. ypace@mediatoday.com.mt News out of Maltese waters, study finds in July 2016, MAF informed the fisheries department that its mem- bers would be represented by the NGO, rather than by one of Malta's two fishermen co-operatives. "When the department was in- formed of this decision its reaction was to stop our duty-free diesel with immediate effect," said MAF president Martin Caruana. He said that the decision was tak- en within 24 hours. Caruana emphasised that fish- ermen's right to duty-free diesel stemmed from the country's im- plementation of the EU Directive, and was not a right granted to fish- ermen by the government of the day, as many still believed. He said that when the NGO was set up, fishermen were interested in joining, however many believed that if they were to relinquish their membership of either of the two cooperatives, they would also lose their right to duty-free diesel. In addition to filing a judicial pro- test, the MFA also took its case to the Ombudsman, who wrote to the fisheries department recommend- ing that it apply the directive to all fishermen. "In view of the EU directive which supersedes all the provi- sions of the 2012 agreement and the 2016 directive, and irrespective of what the department's policy dictates, this Office recommends that the EU directive should be ap- plied to all registered fishermen, irrespective of whether they are co-operative members or not," the Ombudsman wrote to the director general of the fisheries department. It was "discriminatory that fisher- men were being compelled to join a co-operative in order to benefit from exemption". When contacted, Fenech Far- rugia said the situation was "sen- sitive" and concerned multiple ministries and stakeholders – in- cluding the state-owned Mediter- ranean Oil Bunkering Company. Although MAF's four members, were receiving duty-free fuel until seven months ago, Fenech Farru- gia said there were administrative issues that needed to be ironed out and which were the subject of high-level discussions. She stressed that the talks aim to ensure an equitable solution for all parties, including the small-scale fishermen and the suppliers of the fuel, MOBC. Attempts to contact MOBC were unsuccessful, and questions sent to fisheries parliamentary secretary Clint Camilleri, remained unan- swered at the time of going to print.