In order to compensate for the loss of profit from tuna fishery and to make a living, fishers have no other option but to spend many more days at sea and catch other fish species.<\/em>[\/beautifulquote]<\/p>\nFishers highlight that the artisanal fishing activity during what was before the Bluefin tuna season (between April and July) became displaced by other fisheries\u2014mainly trammel netting and gill netting, targeting demersal and small pelagic fish respectively. Official statistics show that between 2007 and 2012 the days at sea (fishing effort) on trammel nets increased by 4,500% while gillnets increased by 870%.<\/p>\n
This shift in the fishing effort is having a toll on the ecosystem. The never-ending lines of nets being deployed in the seas for months on end, without any form of monitoring or feasibility studies, raise questions on sustainability. In other words, not only did the conservation of tuna leave fishers worse off, but it is also causing damage to other fisheries systems and dependent economic sectors, such as the diving industry whose stakeholders continuously warn about the steadily decreasing number of fish in the coastal waters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Ray of Hope? Not Yet!<\/h3>\n
Although the tuna is coming back and the fish is showing steady recovery, the fishermen are not reaping the fruits of the conservation efforts they had to endure for 10 years.<\/p>\n
Some positive changes have taken place this year (2018) with the quota of over 25 tonnes being allocated specifically for small-scale fishers. Fishers without a Bluefin tuna permit were allowed to land 2000kg each, however, a lot of questions were raised about who actually benefited from such a quota. What measures were in place to ensure that the quota is truly to be utilised by artisanal fishers? With a planned increase in the next two years, one hopes to see a more strategic implementation of the Bluefin tuna quota system. There is an urgent need to monitor the social justice component of the tuna fishery in a way that truly fulfills the social, economic and ecological sustainability of our fisheries and the society in general.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bluefin tuna policy has deeper ramifications than ‘slime’ in our swimming zones. The consequences of the policy have an impact on the ecosystems, the socio-economic profile of the fishing communities, the diving industry and the Maltese social fabric at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":378,"featured_media":4101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,37],"tags":[69,244,15,245],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/378"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4100"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7040,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions\/7040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islesoftheleft.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}