Italian and French tuna fishermen based in Malta for the season have threatened to blockade either or both the ports of Valletta and Marsaxlokk today in protest over the early closing of the purse seine tuna fishing season. They are also demanding an urgent meeting with EU Maritime and Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.

The European Commission last Thursday announced the season’s early closing effective from 16 June – some two weeks earlier than the previously-established 30 June closing date.

In reaching the decision, the EC cited it deemed “quotas allocated to them will shortly have been exhausted”.

The Malta-based fishermen, however, insist they are nowhere near their quotas – with many vessels having only operated for five days so far this season due to inclement seas – and that they have the proof to back up their claims, which they want to present to Dr Borg.

Some vessels, protestors said, had not even begun operations this season. There are around 30 Italian and French purse-seining vessels based in Malta this season, currently unable to operate.

In the meantime, fishermen argue, Libyan, Tunisian, Turkish and Croatian purse-seining operations continued to ply the Mediterranean unfettered since they are not EU member states and as such fell outside the remit of EU jurisdiction.

Angered over the EU decision, some 300 Italian and French fishermen staged a protest in front of the European Commission’s Representation in Malta in Ta’ Xbiex yesterday morning and demanded an urgent meeting in a city of Dr Borg’s choice.

Following the protest, and an unsatisfactory reply yesterday afternoon from Dr Borg, fishermen’s representatives will be meeting tonight, possibly with the involvement of Maltese colleagues, to decide on the format of another protest to be held today.

Incensed over the state of affairs, and effectively barred by the EU from working, the fishermen have threatened to blockade Malta’s ports until Dr Borg accedes to their request for an urgent meeting.

Defusing the situation yesterday morning, the EU Representation’s press and political officer Edward Demicoli had agreed to contact Dr Borg’s team to relay the protestor’s demand.

Meeting fishermen’s representatives later in the afternoon, Mr Demicoli conveyed Dr Borg’s message that the Commissioner would be willing to meet only next week and only with the fishermen’s association or cooperative.

But with just two weeks of the originally-slated season left, fishermen’s representatives saw the offer as a mere delaying tactic and intend proceeding with further actions until an urgent meeting is convened.

Tuna fishermen, protestors insist, have been heavily monitored this season – both by the presence of inspectors on board as well as through monitoring by Italian and French naval vessels and Italian air surveillance.

Fishermen argue these, as well as log books and vessels’ “blue boxes” – which register all vessel movements and positions – would all able to verify that the disputed quotas were far from having been reached.

“The EU has based its decision on the mere presumption that the quotas have been reached; we do not work with presumptions,” commented Italian fisherman and representative Pasquale Della Monica.

“We feel as though we are being treated as terrorists,” he added with reference to new observation rules. “We have saved human lives and always cooperated with the authorities with migrants – all we ask for in return is some cooperation.”

The fishermen have found themselves between a rock and a hard place – restricted from the yearly tuna season, which provides the bulk of their income, and unwilling to go home empty handed.

Others cite employees to pay, irrespective of the size of the catch, bank loans to meet and commercial contracts to live up to.

The EU, Mr Della Monica argues, closed the season on the assumption that the quotas would have been reached by now, and that they wanted to present the proof to the Commissioner himself.

“We want things to be done the right way, and we want to respect the quotas, but only if it is done through a rational plan and not with haphazard decisions like this. All we want is to fish our quota, nothing else.”