Malta-Tunisia to discuss fishermen's clashes
Preparations are being made for a meeting between the Maltese and Tunisian authorities about clashes between fishermen of the two countries, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Ninu Zammit said in parliament yesterday. Giving an account of the situation...
Preparations are being made for a meeting between the Maltese and Tunisian authorities about clashes between fishermen of the two countries, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Ninu Zammit said in parliament yesterday.
Giving an account of the situation in reply to a parliamentary question by Mr Noel Farrugia (MLP), the minister said that since the 2001 lampuki season there had been correspondence between the National Fisheries Cooperative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Fisheries and the matter was discussed when the prime minister visited Tunis a year ago.
Further discussions were held between the Maltese and Tunisian fisheries departments in March. During that meeting one of the proposed solutions was for Malta to offer its experience to the Tunisian authorities on lampuki fishing using long lines (kannizzati). The idea was that if the Tunisian fishermen had their own kannizzati, they would not damage those belonging to the Maltese.
Since then no request had been made by the Tunisian authorities for Malta to help them organise fishing in that way.
The Maltese Director of Fisheries wrote to his Tunisian counterpart about the clashes on August 27 and received a reply at the end of last month.
The Tunisian director said that a campaign had been held among Tunisian fishermen before the season started urging them to respect other fishermen, Tunisian or foreign. A circular distributed to regional offices urged the Tunisian fishermen to observe international fisheries regulations and to pay attention to the equipment of other fishermen.
Mr Zammit said three reports of clashes had been made. On Sepember 13 and 17 an AFM aircraft was dispatched and took photos of Tunisian fishing boats but there were no photos of Tunisian craft fishing on the Maltese fishermen's kannizzati.
Mr Zammit said the incidents happened in international waters and Maltse law therefore had no jurisdiction but Malta and other countries wanted to make arrangements to resolve such issues as they arose.