Source: Times of Malta
The Ghaqda Koperattiva tas Sajd insisted at a meeting with the Fisheries Department today that tuna fishermen who are not allowed to fish because of the severely reduced tuna quota should be made eligible to an EU scheme to fund the scrapage of their trawlers.
The call was made during a meeting also attended by the National Fisheries Cooperative.
Informed sources said two proposals had been made. The first was the allocation of an individual quota for every fisherman on the basis of the average catch of the past 15 years - a system adopted last year - while the other put all fishermen in one basket, and fishing would be stopped once the quota is attained.
The sources said that the Ghaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd in arguing that under last year's system, as adopted for this year's quota, some 20 fishermen would end up without a quota. These included fishermen who have not been fishing for tuna for the past 15 years and their average is therefore low.
It was agreed that should an adaptation of last year's individual quota be brought in for this year, the tuna fishermen would be given compensation to 'demolish' their vessels.
Further meetings are to be held on how the scheme would work.
Malta's fishing quota was slashed to 161 tons in a decision taken by EU ministers in terms of a stock recovery plan that was agreed at a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT).
The quota has been going down steadily, having been 331 tons in 2008 and 262 tons last year.