Nature Trust Malta, the environmental NGO, captured the occasion of World Seas Day celebrated yesterday to point out issues which it deems to be among the priorities of the environmental maritime agenda in our country.

NTM welcomes the recent improvement in the listing of the Maltese ship register in the Paris Memorandum of Understanding. It is augured that further steps to phase out single hulled and old vessels are accelerated. Malta is also prompted to take a stand against the scrapping of ships in environmentally and socially unacceptable conditions in third world countries, Nature Trust added.

The environmental organisation urged the government to heed the developments in the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament and focus on making the fishing industry in the Mediterranean sustainable.

The NGO called for immediate action, including the use of more environmentally friendly fishing gear; the fishing of only adult sized specimens; a tough stand against illegal fishing, including a ban on the use of explosives and spear fishing; more controls on present fish farms and a moratorium on new fish farms.

The NGO calls for more marine protected areas to allow fishing-free breeding areas. Marine protected areas should be managed and funded appropriately and the fishermen who leave the area should be compensated.

NTM calls for the government to be more proactive in fighting against maritime pollution and to ensure the safeguarding of maritime ecology.