Feb 04 - GSD Questions Net Fishing Licensing
The GSD has once again renewed its calls for the Government to come clean and state whether Spanish Fishermen wishing to fish in BGTW with nets, will have to apply for a licence in Gibraltar.
It will be recalled that at the end of last year the Government introduced changes to the Nature Protection Act which were intended to be a first step in changes which would allow fishing in BGTW with EU compliant nets.
At the time, however, the Government did not say whether its intention was to require Spanish Fishermen to apply for a licence in Gibraltar. The Opposition has been pressing the Government to come clean on the issue since November of last year and in the January session of Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition asked the Chief Minister that very same question and the latter refused to answer it.
The Leader of the Opposition, Daniel Feetham commented, 'it beggars belief that two years after this crisis broke we still do not know what the Government intends to do and three months after the Government introduced amendments to the Nature Protection Act, it refuses to state publicly whether members of the La Linea and Algeciras Cofradias will have to apply for a licence in Gibraltar or whether they will be allowed to fish by virtue of their existing membership of those Cofradias.
'It is now two years since the Government did away with the 1999 Agreement via an announcement on Facebook by the Minister of the Environment and amidst cries from Government supporters of “aqui no se pesca”. In the meantime the Government commissioned a Fishing Report to guide its policy in relation to fishing in BGTW. That report did not recommend any changes to the law. On the contrary, it commended the existing legislation with its outright ban on fishing with nets. It is about time the Government came clean and told people what it intends to do, so that they can assess for themselves whether Government policy has been coherent and in the best interests of this community. This is yet again another issue in a long line of issues on which the Government refuses to come clean despite its New Dawn facade at the last election.'
