Oct 06 - Government "Must Be Honest About Fishing" Says Opposition
The GSD says it would like to remind the public that, in October of 2013, the Government amended the Nature Protection Act in order to allow the Minister for the Environment to introduce regulations to allow regulated fishing with EU compliant nets. The Opposition says that, despite the change to the Act, the Government has still not introduced the regulations. The GSD now asks whether the Government is waiting until after the election to do so because of a “potential public backlash”. The GSD says this would be wrong and the Government “has to have the courage of its convictions” to defend its policy and expose it to public scrutiny.
For example, argues the GSD, the Government “refuses to come clean” as to whether its intention in those regulations is to require Spanish Fishermen to apply for a licence in Gibraltar or whether the Government will draw up a list of Spanish Fishing vessels deemed to be licensed in Gibraltar (without applying) provided they are members of one of the Fishing Cofradias in Spain. The Opposition says it has been pressing the Government to answer that question since November 2013 and the Chief Minister has refused to answer it.
The Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham, said: “Mr Picardo has to have the courage of his convictions and explain his policy clearly to people. It is unacceptable for him to refuse to answer questions on his intentions and then wait until after the election to allow Spanish Fishermen to fish in BGTW without applying for a licence here. This is particularly so when the GSLP-Liberal manifesto at the last election said very clearly and unequivocally that ‘we do not believe it is right to allow illegal fishing in our waters and we will stop this immediately. We will ensure that the ban on the use of drift nets and other nets is enforced’ and there are more fishermen fishing with nets in BGTW than ever before. If on top of that broken promise he intends to allow Spanish Fishermen to fish here without applying for licence locally, the public deserves to know”.
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