Eight years after it was banned, in Italy, other types of illegal driftnets are still being used. They end the lives of thousands of cetaceans and turtles each year.
Oceana considers this morning’s surrender of 250 km of illegal driftnets positive. The nets were used to catch swordfish by fishermen from Bagnara Calabra. Even so, the international marine conservation organization underlines that this act does not mean the end of driftnets in Italy. Oceana has reported the activity of hundreds of kilometers of illegal driftnets of vessels in this port for years. This has been done both along the coast and on the high seas by vessels that had collected substantial subsidies to reconvert them.
Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana in Europe, has celebrated that at last, after almost a one-year blockade of this port by the coast guard, the fishermen in this bastion of driftnet use have surrendered their nets to be destroyed. However, he added: ”The nets should have been confiscated by the authorities years ago and the subsidies returned. This is not a voluntary return. This port has a longstanding tradition of illegal practices, and we are asking the Administration not to make this into a measure for the media alone and continue the historic permissiveness toward this destructive fishing gear. Driftnets must be completely and permanently done away with.”
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