illegal net fishing in Birzebbuga

[MartinB]

Also i have seen 'S' registered boats picking up and dropping nets in plain sight of a patrol boat...i think there must be either a selective enforcement policy or more likely whether they can be bothered doing any work!

[bigboy]

i am not against the guys with an s registration who cast nets beacause as long as they are casting nets outside harbours and not in shallow areas its all ok beacause these do not cast out more than 3-4 nets. But i am disgusted of seeing people with small fishing boats with an mfc or mfb registration casting their nets so close to land in harbours and in bays.

[MartinB]

Thats what i meant bigboy i see guys regularly dropping nets about 20m out from the shore,ok granted its not in a harbour which is even worse, but the net effect is till the same.

[bigboy]

Yes the net effect is still bad but its a kind of fishing ey. Personally i do not really like fishing with nets as its too much of a hassel i prefer longlines and nassi. When we go out for work we never cast our nets less than 1nm offshore, personally i think that when you cast your nets in less than 20fathoms you are bound to catch small fish but when you move in deeper areas mainly 25 - 70 fathoms you are able to find a couple of goodsized fish but you still get the occasional small cippollazza. I think that as we are equipped with a good winch then we can fish deep waters and not ruin the shallow waters.

[MartinB]

Don't get me wrong ive got nothing personally against somebody earing a living by fishing at least 1nm offshore with nets or nassi or longlines,in fact it would be a terrible waste of a natural resource if no one did!!
im just against these F***ing clowns who think only about themselves and that the rules don't apply for them and drop nets wherever they feel like & spoil it for the rest of us ...& eventually for themselves too.....

[Seahunter]

The ALE section of the police and the patol boats are always patroling the sea, but unfortunately they only seem to care only about any bird hunters, and never take any notice of what these fisherman are doing to our sea! 

[Arti2]

Today I saw one throwing his nets near Delimara power plant in front of anglers on shore. Does anybody knows a number where I can call authorities?
There are too much nets! How are we suppose to catch anything? They can go with their boats somewhere else and 'fish' their although fishing is not the proper name for those who throw nets!

[bigboy]

There is net fishing and net fishing. There is also the diameter of the mesh of the net. We fish with 35mm mesh nets which do not hold any small fish in them. I know people from marsaxlokk who throw out 30 nets and more in very poor populated fish areas and catch even the single fish left. There are also  net fisherman who fish with care because they earn a living from it so if they diminish all the fish stock that means that they will not catch anything.

[Arti2]

But why do they throw nets near shore where they see anglers! Especially when they know anglers are catching something like Awrat when it escapes fishfarms! Don't the anglers have the RIGHT to have some good time with their rods! That's a rare opportunity! WHY IS IT THEY HAVE TO SUCK THE SEA FROM ALL THE FISH?

[busumark]

BIGBOY and if you throw nets in deep sea especialy where the bottom is very rocky you will for sure leave pieces of net and that is when you do the most damage to fish. the nets stay in the bottom and the fish still get caught and die. sometimes we bring up pieces of nets when fishing with long lines in deep sea

[bigboy]

We never fish in areas deeper than 70fa. We have some good places in the NE - E Area and till now we have never left a piece of net behind us.

[busumark]

i think the NE E area in 70fathoms is sandy/mud bottom

[Freeman]

Last week I went to buy some bait from a fishshop and he had a section of his showcase, about 100x50cm full of tiny pagell or pagri and when I say tiny I mean not more than 3 inches and there where ALOT of fish. I was a bit pissed at the owner for buying such fish and he noticed my disgusted face when he saw me trying to count the ammount of fish, his responce was that when fisherman come to sell their catch, u either take everything they have or they sell it to someone else, so apparently he has no choice but to buy everything.

Everytime I went abroad for a holiday or work I always took a rod with me, whenever I had some free time I would go find some water and cast in, I fished from land in Italy, Tunes, Greece and spain, Malta by far is the shittest place when it comes to fish population, now it's either in those places ppl don't eat fish or else somehow they have managed not to overfish their coasts. Logic would tell me that if others managed, we should be able to do it aswell.

In the past weeks we heard alot about EU and regulations on hunting, dosent the EU have any sort of regulations about fishing, which Malta would be obliged to follow?

[Granitu]

i heard something very inportant yesterday.. a local fish tackle owner informed me that talks are imminent that probably gnejna, qbajjar and dingli cliffs areas will become maritime park ; probably and no fishing and diving will be allowed (most probably). this is yet rumors but the guy who told me really is informed about such things...

[shanook]

Talks like that have been started a lot of times, I was about 30 years old when conservation areas were talked about (I am now 55). Regarding inshore fishing there are rules but as We were informed in a meeting at a hall in Tarxien (on the road leading to Gudja) for fisherman before we joined the EU, Quote ''RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN'' and ''THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS HOW TO GO ROUND A STRAIGHT ROAD" unquote. Thats the Maltese attitude. If something has to be done we have to push and push untill something is done. So we have to learn and be informed as to what is legal and what is allowed. We also have to be aware where to report incidents and report anything that we see. pressure on authorites is also very important to keep our beaches and seas clean and hopefully  to see more fish both for sport fishing as well as for the enjoyment of snorkelling.
Regarding B'Bugia, we used to have nets stretching from boat moorings, thats how bad it was.