‘Recent heavy flaring has once again been seen from the CEPSA Oil Refinery in San Roque, prompting concerns from residents on both sides of the border. 

The ESG highlights the need for there to be a strong environmental component in the Schengen agreement to address this and other regional environmental issues.’

The ESG and GONHS have read recent comments regarding Bluefin Tuna (BFT) fishing, attributed to local anglers, with disbelief. We believe these comments cannot go unanswered.

The claim that Bluefin Tuna numbers are ‘out of control’ is frankly astonishing. Humans have driven many species to extinction over the centuries, including due to overexploitation. 

The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna itself was threatened with extinction not long ago. Given this history, and the ongoing risks posed by rising sea temperatures and broader environmental pressures, the current recovery of BFT populations should be something to protect and celebrate—not vilify.

While it is true that BFT numbers have improved from near-collapse, experts caution that this recovery is fragile and must be carefully managed. To suggest that the species is now ‘out of control’ is not only misleading but dangerous.  Furthermore, populations of the prey species of BFT remain healthy, or the population of BFT itself would collapse.  This is a very basic ecological principle.

The recent call by the Tuna Fishing Club for a commercial quota, in addition to existing sport fishing quotas, is unacceptable.  Gibraltar’s current quotas are already disproportionately high relative to our small population and territorial waters when compared with allocations to larger countries across Europe.

Gibraltar has a proud and well-established record of fighting to protect its natural environment and biodiversity. The ESG and GONHS believe that Gibraltar has a responsibility to safeguard all migratory species in our environment – particularly apex predators like the majestic BFT that are so important to food chains – now and for generations to come.

Local News

Environmental groups call for stronger tuna regulations as anglers seek commercial quota

By Gabriella PeraltaShare  

29th July 2025

With the Atlantic Bluefin tuna season set to reopen next week, local environmental groups have raised concern over regulations and conservation, while anglers have highlighted the need for a commercial quota.

The first part of the tuna season closed earlier this month with 64 sports anglers catching 122 tunas weighing 23,755 kg.

The highest total amount in weight caught by one angler was 1,118 kg and as anglers often sell their prized catch privately and to restaurants, local conservation groups have questioned whether the Government needs to implement further protections or a commercial framework to ensure standards.

Currently under local law the Tuna Preservation Regulations do not have provisions for the sale of tuna. The regulations make it an offence to sell tuna during the closed season but remain silent on the issue while the season is open.

But the Government told the Chronicle that under the auspices of the Food Hygiene Regulations it is an offence to sell any tuna that lacks proper traceability, regardless of whether it is during the open or closed season.

“Traceability must be established through either a valid landing certificate (for locally caught tuna) or an invoice demonstrating that the tuna has been legally imported through the land frontier via the correct channels (HM customs & EA),” the Government said.

“During the open season, the Environmental Agency issues annual guidance, in the form of an informational letter, to food businesses outlining the requirements relating to tuna handling and food safety.”

With regard to the mechanisms to control the sale of Bluefin tuna at present, enforcement is carried out by the Environmental Agency during routine hygiene inspections at restaurants.

“As part of these inspections, officers verify that the necessary documentation is in place to confirm traceability, and also carry out a physical inspection of any Bluefin tuna present to ensure it is safe for human consumption and corresponds with the supporting documentation,” the Government said.

In response Keith Bensusan, General Secretary of GONHS, said there should be measures in place to ensure that anglers are compliant when selling Bluefin tuna, adding that this raises “all sorts of issues” regarding conservation.

He added that measures need to be “targeted, specific and thorough”.

This year the quota was increased by one tonne compared to last year, with the total allowable catch this year standing at 26 tonnes.

The second part of the season is set to reopen on August 8 and the quota is set at three tonnes.

“Our concern is that the quota is totally out of proportion,” Mr Bensusan said.

“Our stated position is that the quota is already too big, and we are not in favour of an increase.”

The Environmental Safety Group (ESG) reiterated its opposition to the hunting of Bluefin Tuna for sport in Gibraltar and said it “maintains this view today”.

The ESG said it has concerns about how Gibraltar manages this activity and believes more needs to be done.

“We are told the sale of tuna meat caught locally under sport fishing licences is not regulated under our ‘Tuna Preservation Regulations’ but managed by the Environmental Agency under Food and Hygiene Regulations, for safe consumption,”

“This is clearly important from a health and safety perspective but the group would be interested to know why our Tuna Preservation Regulations do not include the issue of sales of catches.”

“The group also asks how it is possible to ensure that catches caught and sold among the community and outside of businesses, which are routinely inspected, are accounted for in terms of food and hygiene regulations.”

“The ESG understands all Bluefin tuna catches must be declared on landing but if not sold commercially, but privately, how then are such standards applied?”

The recent announcement and action taken by the Government on greater protection of some locally fished species was welcomed by the ESG.

“With climate change, warmer seas, over-fishing, and changes to migratory behaviour, the ESG hopes careful monitoring of the visiting Bluefin tuna is in place to ensure fullest understanding possible of the impacts from this sport and quotas amended as per action taken recently on other species,” the ESG said.

Anglers, understandably, have a different take on the issue.

Samuel Marrache, spokesperson for the Gibraltar Tuna Fishing Club, described how the Government should consider providing Gibraltar with a commercial quota, where anglers would be able to sell under stricter conditions.

He gave the example of possibly a 30-tonne local commercial quota, in addition to the existing recreational quota, with anglers needing to contribute a portion of the earnings under the commercial quota to the Government.

“We need to start thinking about a commercial quota, or Gibraltar will continue to stay behind,” he said.

Mr Marrache said the population of wild Bluefin tuna has fully recovered and is now “out of control”, with the prized fish reducing the numbers of bait fish in local waters.

He added that the club prepares recreational anglers to learn how to cut fish and use cooler boxes to ensure food hygiene standards are met, when selling both to restaurants and private sales.

He highlighted the need for a cleaning station, which includes a steel table, where anglers could gut their fish in a clean environment.

But, he added, that the onus of food hygiene also relies on restaurants to ensure that the fish purchased has been handled to high standards.

25th June 2025

“Reports and videos of the vessel ‘Ceutamar Cinco’ on fire as it was supplying goods to a container ship, just off Algeciras,  has reached the ESG.

It is quite alarming to see such large black plumes of smoke emanate from a busy shipping area.

While hoping crew are safe and situation under control, the group asks for information on what exactly has happened and what was burnt to produce such voluminous, thick smoke.

Questions must be asked and answers supplied on a situation that has created heavy air pollution that will undoubtedly also affect our marine environment.”

The ESG welcomes the information supplied by Government regarding the ‘chemical incident’ at New Harbours last week.  Sufficiently serious to cordon off an area the group is relieved no injuries have been reported and commends the agencies involved as first responders dealing with an unexpected and alarming situation. It notes that the chemicals involved have not been named and that this could be helpful to fully clarify what happened.

The group expects that responsibility for this incident will be laid on the company concerned. It calls for an urgent review to be carried out on all similar businesses operating locally on their storage standards and safety practices so that such basic, but dangerous mistakes will not be repeated in future.

The ESG was interviewed by GBC on the strength of its objection to the site visit arranged recently to explain the impacts on views from Catalan Bay Village.

The ESG was not convinced, along with a few other DPC members. Additionally the group feels a project of this scale should have additional public outreach and analysis on its environmental impacts.

“We conveyed our preference to see some form of physical interaction for this project between: developers and their expert advisers, and the public , by way of an exhibition where information and answers could be supplied to the community.

We also stressed that the need for the EIA (environmental impact assessments) could receive wider discussion with all bodies in Gibraltar working for Nature and the Environment to agree the collective impact from such a large marina. All our comments can be found in minutes published on the Development and Planning Website.

The ESG understands there has been a huge amount of work done to study this project, its impacts and future evolution. The group has also met several times with Project Developers and a number of their experts and been able to have answers to many of our questions.

We reserve our position to raise additional views going forward given such a mountain of information was supplied which has not all been fully digested.

Finally the group wishes to add that it understands views held by many of the desire to see an end to the mountain of rubble and need for this to be positively tackled. It also knows that there have been at least 4, if not 5 versions contemplated for this area from different Governments with TNG presenting the latest and so far, more advanced project.

The desire to achieve this should not nullify the absolute need to ensure greatest possible environmental protection and preservation of the character of Catalan Bay Village.

The ESG has been in touch with Government agencies regarding worrying issues emanating from the North Mole Power Station in the last 10 days.

This was first raised publicly by the group in a Press release when information had not been forthcoming, after receiving several complaints from the public regarding heavy, yellow plumes at the plant.

Eventual reply from the Environmental Agency was that they were told by the GEA that the urea used to strip over 90% of NOx from emissions, was believed to be of poor quality and new supplies were being sourced.

When stack emission readings, available on the YouTube portal, continued to be very high we persisted with the Agency to check on what was happening.

End of last week we were notified by them that due to works at the LNG terminal, or even possible upgrades, the Power Station had had to run on diesel, for close to 2 weeks. This was unexpected and a great surprise to the ESG after having been given another explanation altogether. The group is aware of the industry’s obligations and permits and has raised these concerns directly with Government on how this was allowed to happen during works and not for start-up only, or emergency, as it is permitted to do.

While we are relieved to be told that gas supply is now restored, and emissions controlled, we believe the public has a right to know what is happening at all our installations and industry where activity and/or works can impact our health and the environment.

 We expect these to be screened transparently and carried out to best practice and await further clarity from Government.

The ESG has received several reports of continuous yellow fumes emanate from the LNG Power Station. The group immediately contacted environmental authorities with the first, recent report, filed last Thursday. Since then more reports have come in of continued fumes and no explanation has been given. Nitrogen Dioxide emissions responsible for the sight of yellow plumes at the LNG plant in the past are usually controlled via SCR treatment ¹. Prolonged periods of such plumes suggests abnormal operational activity. This pollutant is tightly controlled because of its impacts on public health.

The group appreciates that blips in the system as complex and technical as this installation happen but sincerely hopes the current situation will be rectified and explanations supplied to the public forthwith.

Yellow fumes explained:-

1. Extract from Safety Power, Inc-Canada

Yellow plumes can sometimes be observed at the exhaust of diesel and natural gas generators during certain operating conditions (see Figure 1). This is a visible representation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) present in the exhaust gasses from an engine. Utilizing Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology such as the ecoCUBE®, NO2 is reduced to colourless and harmless nitrogen gas and steam, and then released into the atmosphere. When an SCR system is operational, there should be no visible yellow plume as a large majority (> 90% typically) of the NOx present in the exhaust stream is destroyed.

It is with great relief to learn that the deafening blasts from ships horns offshore in the early hours of Tuesday morning, did not result in injury or pollution of the marine environment. The ESG tracked the situation from when a minor collision was confirmed but very few details emerged of the incident until late afternoon.

The group understands that more information will be released on how this happened given our state-of-the-art vessel tracking technology in place.

The incident must serve as an urgent reminder to the Port to respond to recommendations made, in the OS 35 Report published only last month, addressing procedures governing ship movements in and out of our waters. These must be revised to reduce the risk of further collisions from happening. 

These recommendations are not only necessary but best practice and should, in our view, be implemented without further delay.

These are:

The Gibraltar Port VTS is recommended to formalise the procedure for advising departing vessels, with no pilot embarked, of the recommended route for departing the Western Anchorage.

And that:

Gibraltar Pilots are recommended to:

-Provide masters, on arrival and on their website, with the information required of the option to take a pilot from anchorage to sea.

-Formalise the information provided to masters for departing the Western Anchorage  on arrival

Lastly, that the Gibraltar Port Authority is recommended to consider introducing compulsory pilotage for vessels departing the western Anchorage.

Ends.

ESG to follow up matter further.

18.03.2025