Dedicated authority planned to regulate diving sector
Legal experts are working on legislation, tourism minister tells parliament
Malta is set to get a dedicated authority regulating diving activity, with government lawyers already drafting a bill to be brought before parliament, Tourism Minister Jo Etienne Abela said on Monday.
“It’s time for the country to have an authority that regulates this touristic activity,” Abela said, in a reply to an unrelated parliamentary question by PN MP Beppe Galea.
While scant on details, Abela said legal experts within the government are already working on legislation that will need to be discussed in parliament.
Diving is a popular niche in Malta’s tourism sector, but the underwater sport has resulted in fatalities.
In April, a 64-year-old Englishman died while diving at Wied iż-Żurrieq. A few months earlier, a 54-year-old German woman who had been diving off Dwejra passed away after finding herself in difficulty.
A year ago, Dione Galdes, a widely respected diver, sustained fatal injuries during a diving accident in Ċirkewwa. This prompted calls for a first-aid centre at the Ċirkewwa Marine Park, as Galdes had been given first-aid attention on the pavement in the sun, in front of other divers.
Last month, an organisation representing freedivers and spearfishers started a campaign urging boaters to be careful around divers. It warned that near-misses are becoming increasingly common along the east coast between Birżebbuġa and Ċirkewwa.
As per a notice to mariners issued by Transport Malta in 2024, boats are recommended to keep a minimum distance of 100 metres away from surface marker buoys, which indicate that a diver is below the surface.
The same notice to mariners reminds mariners that “every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing, as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”