WATCH: Large Fish Trap At Gozo’s Blue Hole Sparks Online Debate On Island’s Marine Protected Areas
Footage of large fishing nets near Gozo’s Blue Hole in Dwejra appeared on Facebook just over 24 hours ago, but an online debate is already waging in comments section all over people’s newsfeeds.
Shot by diver and regular uploader Raniero Borg, the video shows a couple of divers dive alongside the large net. “There are other places where nets could be placed further away from land to catch fish,” Raniero said. “They should not be placed in such populated and touristic diving-sites.”
Soon enough, though, some important clarifications on the nets were made.
It turns out that the nets are actually traps for small fish like vopi (bogue) and they cannot be deployed offshore since slight movement would result in the fish escaping through the open holes. Apart from being harmless to most species, the traps are also legal to use in the area. However, that did not stop people from pointing out that, perhaps, a better location could be used other than “the most popular diving site in the world”.
This is not the first time that the island’s fishing laws and regulations have ended up under fire from critics around the island.
“It is illegal to spearfish within the swimmer zone, for example,” a person who works in Dwejra told Lovin Malta. “This year alone, I’ve reported illegal spearfishing several times to different police stations, fisheries, everything. The answer I get is always the same: ‘If we had to stop that one guy, we’d have to stop them all’.”
However, beyond the issues of fishing traps and the legality of particular types of fishing, there is also a further point to be addressed; the particular location, Dwejra’s Marine Protected Area.
Initially, Dwejra was listed as one of five MPAs around the island, sharing the list with Mġarr ix-Xini as Gozo’s representative.
After nine more areas were added to that list back in 2016, Malta designated two MPAs under the Environment Protection Act; an area between Rdum Majjiesa and Ras ir-Raheb, and Dwejra itself.
Lovin Malta reached out to marine biologist Professor Alan Deidun for more on this.
“Although the Blue Hole tentatively falls within the core zone of the Dwejra MPA, there is as yet no implementation of any management measures on site,” Professor Deidun told Lovin Malta. “Therefore, no laws are technically being broken, despite the uncomfortable proximity between scuba diving activities and fishing ones.”
“Nearshore MPA management plans will be ready by the end of 2019, and hopefully things will change then,” Professor Deidun finished. “Such plans will introduce a degree of zonation and separation of ongoing activities on site, although substantial investment in beefing up local enforcement capacities at sea needs to happen, putatively through European funds.”