Brussels explores European patrols against lampuki poachers

The European Commission will be exploring the possibility of having the European Fisheries Control Agency patrolling lampuki fishing grounds to curb the plunder of dolphin fish by Tunisian poachers.

Tensions continue to rise between Maltese and Tunisian fishers, as the marauding of local fishing grounds has continued well into this year’s lampuki season.

Just last week, footage sent to MaltaToday showed a war of words between Gozitan fishers and poachers, after their lampuki fishing lines in the Mediterranean were being scouted by Tunisians.

Italian fishers are also feeling the brunt, with an Italian coast-guard seen firing warning shots at a Tunisian boat that did not stop when requested. The MEP candidate Peter Agius posted the video as an example of how member states’ authorities should be protecting the fishing industry against poachers.

Agius has now requested EU Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, for a more direct solution to the issue, as well as better collaboration between Europe and Tunisia.

In response to Agius’s letter, the fisheries commissioner said that together with local authorities, they are exploring the involvement of the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), to support measures enacted by the General Fisheries Commission of the Mediterranean (GFCM) last year, and entered into force on 18 April 2020.

The use of EFCA was first floated by the MEP candidate last year, when the issue of Malta’s problems with poachers on the high seas was raised in the GFCM.

PN MEP candidate Peter Agius

Such measures would include the prohibition to fish under Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) that have been set up by vessels from another country, as well as the possibility to adopt a code of conduct for this type of fishery. “This would provide added benefits to the patrol means already employed by the Maltese government,” Sinkevičius said.

EFCA are already carrying out patrols in the Mediterranean Sea to ensure that tuna fishers abide by regulations. Monitoring takes place most intensely on purse seiners and when tuna transfers to ‘ranches’ take place, when tuna are fattened and eventually slaughtered. Two observers, one from the country of origin of the purse seiner and another from the country of destination for fattening, are stationed on purse seiners during fishing runs.

Measures related to lampuki (dolphin fish) were adopted after MaltaToday broke the story on Tunisian poachers in 2019, pushing government towards a collaborative solution among Mediterranean countries, after fishers reported being threatened by Molotov cocktails and machetes by the Tunisians.

Sinkevičius also said that the European Commission is looking to reinforce the control of catch certificates for imported dolphin fish. Such reinforcement would allow for the better detection of illegally caught fish on the EU market. “In the longer term, we are reflecting about all other possible actions we could carry out in the future in accordance with the GFCM recommendation,” he said.

Maltese fishers say they have been let down by the authorities after promised patrols by the Armed Forces of Malta to act as a deterrent for Tunisian vessels plundering their lampuki catch, failed to materialise.

At the start of the lampuki fishing season, the Fisheries Ministry said that the AFM would be patrolling the sea where Maltese fishers lay out their fishing lines in a bid to stave off the friction with Tunisian fishers. In August, the authorities had assured that Maltese fishers on the high seas setting sail for this year’s lampuki season would be accompanied by an army patrol boat that would carry out monitoring of the fishing grounds.