The Fisheries Board has not met since the 2017 general election but is expected to be “reconstituted in the coming days,” a spokesperson for Environment Minister José Herrera said.
The board’s long and unusual hiatus was raised with The Sunday Times of Malta last week by sources in the fisheries sector, which has been rocked by Spanish investigations that uncovered a vast illegal trade in bluefin tuna.
Spanish authorities have seized more than 80,000 kilos of the tuna caught in and around Maltese waters and fattened in Maltese tuna pens. Investigators in Malta and Spain said that the tuna ranching industry is feared to be rife with abuse.
The board, which is composed of fisheries experts and fishermen, representatives of cooperatives and of various government entities, has a wide advisory role established in the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act. The board’s function is to provide “advice” to the minister on matters raised by the minister himself, as well as “generally in relation to the development, administration and conservation of the fisheries of Malta.”
Prior to the election the board used to meet every six weeks or so, or about eight times a year.
One board member said that he has in the past spoken to senior officials about the board’s inactivity, and that no complete answers were given. Prior to the election the board used to meet every six weeks or so, or about eight times a year.
The spokesperson for the minister, who is responsible for fisheries, did not answer a question as to why the board hasn’t been convened for 20 months. The brief one-sentence answer only affirmed that the “board would be reconstituted in the coming days”.
Additional functions of the board outlined in law include making proposals to curb fishing on species in accordance with conservation exigencies, and to make “recommendations” on any matter raised by any board member, government department, or any person.
The board is supposed to draw up annual reports about its work.
A long-time member of the board who preferred not to be named said the board’s erstwhile “true consultative role” had diminished over the years, especially in the past five to seven years, and the feeling was that decisions were taken elsewhere and presented in the board as a formality.
Other members concurred and spoke of a split between traditional small-scale fishermen and those representing intensive or industrial fishing interests, including trawling. The ‘split’ has sown discord and paralysis in the board.