Malta’s proposal for Fishermen’ Fishing Aggregate Devices ( FADs) to be regulated in international waters, has been unanimously accepted at the GFCM Annual General Meeting held in Athens Greece over the past week.

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights Clint Camilleri, welcomed this important decision for the local sector.

He said that this is a positive step forward towards making the sector operating more sustainably with more clearer parameters. “Through these adopted measures local fishermen have exclusivity of the FAD.”

This proposal was pushed forward by the Maltese Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and Fishing Co-operatives through the European Commission, for the adoption of a set of management measures for the use of anchored Fishing Aggregating Devices (FAD) for Lampuki.

The measures outline that the contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties (CPC) will maintain a register of the FADs authorisations and communicate the list of the vessels authorised to the GFCM secretariat each year on the 31st of July.

The GFCM will also maintain the list of authorised vessels and publish it on the GFCM website. Such measures will directly safeguard fishermen from the previously unregulated situations whereby FADs were being damaged or fished upon by additional countries, the Parliamentary Secretary said

Also, the surface and the sub-surface structure of the FAD has to be covered with a material that does not entangle non-target species and FADs using biodegradable materials shall be prioritised.

The CPC will take the necessary actions to record any loss and retrieval of FADs and the CPC shall ensure that FADS are regularly maintained, replaced as necessary and removed when they are not in use, and ensure that each FAD is marked in such a way that it can be readily identified.

File photo: Alain Salvary

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