Blue Campaign

Times of Malta, 8 September 2010 This year, the European Commission decided to close the bluefin tuna season one week earlier, recalling its purse seine fishing fleet after the catch quotas had been reached earlier than expected. This is not the good news it might appear to be because the tuna massacre is set to continue as European fishermen flying non-European...

Times of Malta 13 May 2010 Din l-Art Ħelwa is pleased to hear that the EU is proposing new measures to protect diminishing stocks of swordfish. According to regulations issued by ICCAT (2007/01) it is prohibited to fish for swordfish between October 1 and November 30. This will allow stocks to build up by allowing breeding and the swordfish will be...

Sunday Times of Malta, 25 April 2010 The vote on the proposal to ban international trade in the Atlantic bluefin tuna was soundly defeated last month at the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting. Originally tabled by Monaco and supported by both the EU and the US, conservationists sought an outright ban at CITES because they are...

Times of Malta, 21 January 2010 As has happened before, history is about to repeat itself. Back in 1992, the thriving cod fishing industry in Newfoundland, Canada came to a sudden and full stop when, at the start of the fishing season, no cod appeared. Overfishing allowed by decades of fisheries mismanagement was the main cause for this disaster that resulted...

Times of Malta, 24 December 2009 In his letter Responsible, Strict Bluefin Tuna Fishery (December 16), Carmelo Agius is quite right when he says that we approach the issue differently. While we agree that socio-economic implications need to be taken into account when conservation policies are implemented, our roads then diverge. The socio-economic implications of the situation are interesting to contemplate. We should...

Times of Malta, 12 December 2009 Carmelo Agius of the University of Malta’s Biology Department (December 5) gives the impression that the “extremist” lobby campaigning for a total ban on tuna fishing is being excessively alarmist. ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) recently introduced measures to counter the downward trend in bluefin tuna stocks, one of which is...

Times of Malta, Letter to the Editor, 21 August 2009 I read with interest the letter written by Mark Mifsud Bonnici entitled Illegal Fishing Rampant (August 20). Indeed illegal fishing is still rampant despite regulations. Din l-Art Ħelwa has been running a Blue Campaign for the past five years and has often spoken about this practice which is decreasing fish stock...