DR FRANCIS AGIUS, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Fisheries, recently addressed the 23rd Convegno Internazionale Mare e Territorio organised by the Agrigento section of the Lega Navale Italiana.

The theme this year was "Defending the Environment and the Protected Marine Areas: improvement and development factors".

The meeting, held at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Agrigento, was presided over by the president of the Agrigento section, Silvana Vella Bianchettino, and was addressed by senior Italian government officials and distinguished personalities, including Enzo Incontro of the RAI Uno TV series Linea Blu.

Dr Agius, who was the keynote speaker, explained the policies of the Maltese government regarding developments in fisheries and aquaculture sector and the measures taken to control potential impacts on the environment.

These include a detailed study regarding the coasts of the Maltese Islands. Fifteen zones of ecological monitoring have been set up and regular consultations take place with various public entities.

Dr Agius spoke about the commercial aquaculture activities undertaken in Malta, and of the new challenges facing these two sectors, particularly after Malta's recent accession to the European Union.

Professor Carmelo Agius, of the Biology Department of the University of Malta, gave a presentation on environmental issues relating to aquaculture from a global perspective.

Professor Agius also attended as a former recipient of the Uomini del Mare award. Such an award is presented once a year to a personality who has made a significant contribution in the maritime sector.

Past Maltese recipients of the award include former President Censu Tabone, Victor Wickman, who runs his own maritime collection, Laurence Grech, editor of The Sunday Times, and Professor David Attard, dirctor of the Inernational Maritime Law Institute.

Another speaker at the Agrigento convention was Professor Ridha Mezghani, of the University of Tunis, who is consultant on environmental legislation to the Tunisian government. He spoke on Mediterranean inter-connections regarding the environment sector and the protection of fish species.

Other speakers included Professor Vincenzo Liguori and Dott.ssa Lina Miccichè of Palermo University, Luca Natale and Raffaele Gareri, who are responsible for protected marine areas, and Dott.ssa Teresa Gagliardi of the Italian Ministry of the Environment.

As is the custom at these annual conventions, a number of students from higher secondary schools in Agrigento province presented short essays on subjects connected with the theme of the convention.

The Maltese guest speakers were then taken to Porto Empedocle, the port of Agrigento, and shown around am Italian navy ship which is a novel design to cater for flexibility in large-scale operations in the Mediterranean such as scientific and security monitoring, emergency assistance to seamen in distress, recovering of illegal immigrants lost at sea, etc.

The hallmarks of this ship are the extreme rapidity of intervention and that it can stay out at sea for up to 10 days without refuelling, as well as the high degree of computerised automation making it possible to operate it with half the normal manpower of ships of the same size.