Activist and long-time diver Raniero Borg shared this video below of several pots found during one dive off Qawra point, St. Paul’s Bay.
These pots are commonly found around the coast by divers – many times lost after their lines become entangled in marine reefs and other debris, or they become lost due to boating activity or sheer ignorance..
What’s the result? When they get lost they continue “fishing”, become a deathtrap for fish and octopus which slowly die within.
Solutions could vary from mandatory reporting of all lost fishing gear, mandatory logging of location where such gear is dropped and mandatory marking of such gear with boat number + strict enforcement prior to these boats letting these traps down. Collaboration between divers and fishermen in order to retrieve such gear when lost is a realistic opportunity too!
But this needs another ghost to go away – that of the seeming apathy from authorities to wake up and do something about it!
Raniero’s recent videos only cover a small area of the coast – what’s happening in the rest?
