We will introduce new Marine Protected Areas in Gozo to stimulate fish population growth to help the diving tourism sector.
These initiatives bring about winners and losers. Though clearly an initiative which will bring about a net benefit, it is nonetheless important to manage and ease the adaptation process for the persons that would be negatively impacted – not bulldoze your way through ala Austin Gatt.
Certain fish types, like groupers and octopus, are residential in nature and also take a long time to breed. When we hunt them from an area, their populations do not just get replenished from the larger sea as a whole as happens in other species. Having an area that is protected would acts as spawning pool for such species and this will slowly spread to the rest of our coast – improving diving experiences, and fisherman’s catch sizes, throughout. I have seen this happen in MPA in Sicily.
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