Feb 27 – GSD: Our Policy On Fishing With Nets Is Clear
The suggestion by the Chief Minister that the GSD is advocating a return to the 1999 Agreement is, according to the Opposition, “absolutely nonsensical and another attempt to divert attention away from the fact that he has not kept his express manifesto promise that his Government would put an end to net fishing in BGTW ‘immediately’”.
The GSD stresses that the point it consistently makes is that the Government should not have done away with the 1999 Agreement, still less done so via an announcement on Facebook, without having something to take its place. It is not, however, advocating a return to the 1999 Agreement.
The GSD says it has been very clear over the last three years on its policy and has advocated the introduction of legislation to allow licensed fishing with EU compliant nets during certain times of the year but that any new law should be strictly enforced.
When the party first announced that policy, the GSD says that the Government taunted the Opposition with the criticism that “”EU compliant nets” was just a euphemism for “Spanish nets””. Two years after those taunts and hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on expert reports, assets and personnel, the Government decided to adopt that very same policy and on 29 October 2013 it amended the Nature Protection Act in order to allow for regulations to be introduced to permit the use of EU-compliant nets, says the GSD.
The amendments to the Nature Protection Act brought by the Government, says the GSD, “are very clear and unambiguous.”
Indeed, says the party, after the legislation was published, but before it was presented to Parliament, GOHNS had said that it was concerned that “the Government of Gibraltar may be taking steps to allow fishing with nets”. In addition, argues the GSD, days before the legislation was presented to Parliament, the Gibraltar Chronicle reported that “the wide expectation is that regulations to be published will lift the ban on those methods under clearly-defined circumstances that will include some form of registration scheme”.
The reality, says the GSD, is that the Government “is not being honest with people because it is waiting until after the next General Election before it introduces regulations to allow fishing with nets for fear of antagonising one group or another.”
“At least in the GSD we are clear with our policy and the electorate knows exactly what we would do,” concluded a statement.
