BICREF on tuna penning off Benghajsa

At a time when the Maltese delegation is said to have participated actively at the Sustainability Summit in Johannesburg, in Malta, another tuna penning project that was turned down not too long ago by the MEPA (then PA) board (seven against four) has...

At a time when the Maltese delegation is said to have participated actively at the Sustainability Summit in Johannesburg, in Malta, another tuna penning project that was turned down not too long ago by the MEPA (then PA) board (seven against four) has been reconsidered by the same MEPA and voted in favour (six against five).

The reconsidered tuna penning development is that planned off Benghajsa reef and is the first on the cliff side of the Maltese Islands. The Biological Conservation Research Foundation (BICREF) is worried that the new exploitation of this site for tuna penning will encourage a fresh wave of applications for more tuna pens in this scenic, biodiversity-rich area.

This will seriously continue to increase the organic load around the Maltese coasts and increase the exploitation of the wild stocks of blue fin tuna spawning (reproducing) in the Mediterranean.

When will a real marine conservation area be established around our coasts, it asked, and when will effective preservation part balance the extensive development and environmental exploitation of our islands?

Also worrying for BICREF is the "no objection" shown by the national tourism authorioty (NTO) when up to some time ago the MTA and Tourism Minister Michael Refalo declared that the tourism organisation was against tuna pens being so close to our coasts.

Surely very soon, the tourist ferries would have to face the new tuna penning development as they took the tourists to admire our cliffs, it said. In the international year of ecotourism, where is the Tourism Ministry to encourage natural resources to remain undisturbed for the appreciation of tourists?

Hadn't the strong smell emitted by the tuna pens, the increased complaints by many scuba divers of the decreased visibility in the waters close to fish farms and tuna pens, the observed and documented accumulation of dead matter under the tuna cages, and the increased blue fin tuna fishing crises and conflicts in the Mediterranean indicated anything to local authorities about the already evident impacts of tuna penning?

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