On a recent trip to Malta I was only startled by the diversity of the culture & joys of the island but as much as the dive guide hyped up the Rozi dive being well populated with fish. I saw very few. Maybe my scepticism came into play but yet again it has made me even more determined to discover where the fish were & why the locals had embraced a cuisine that was not the easiest to catch.
Well there were NO Fish - we've eaten them all. Well, if you've watched "End Of The Line" then that's no suprise to you!
So having giving up trying to find the fish I took some time out at the beach in St. Pauls Bay, Qawara. Whilst bored of getting burnt I sat up from my sweating horizontal position &sort some shade against the rocks. Figuring that the locals knew beater than to "baked like a tourist" I headed for a shaded spot not but a few meters off the shore but indeed shaded enough to give my balding head some respite.
Have taken a seat against the rock it steadied me for what I was about to witness - A very nice but hungry middle aged Maltise couple snorkeling for sea urchins. Which she insisted, though quite sadly due to the extremely poor amount of flesh gained from 1 kill, that the sea urchin has become a new delicasy for locals to eat raw & even served up in so called traditional restaurants as soup or even flavouring of pasta.
Thus, having no fish to catch the man upon donning his mask, fins & snorkel pulled out rather odd looking item in the form of an old paint roller handle. To my horror, I firstly thought that he was about to wash out the paint right there in front of me in the ocean. Yet, he had a much more sinister use for it was complete with an sized fishing hook with which to pry them from their embedded position. When asked if I liked to try some I obviously refused but wanted to see how much meat could be sustained from a single catch - the answer is next to nothing!
When quizzed about the effort needed to catch them for such little reward the reply came in the form of the following. "yes you need many for just a small bowl of soup, but we like the taste that is gained from the orange part of the urchin. Many we need at least 20 for a serving of pasta. I don't like them but like many people my husband likes them for the colouring more so". Insane, that now we/they've eaten all the fish, they are now moving down the food chain.
Also, as beautiful as Gozo was particularly the Blue Lagoon I couldn't help but observe how dirty it was after the days visitors had littered it with disguarded by-products. This appeared be the same story around the Island. With mainly soft drink bottles being the culprit.
I am going to write to the bottle company there & also the manufactuers of Kinnie (the local orange beverage) if they are able to incentivise people to do otherwise, perhaps with an additional levy on the bottle that can be claimed back upon its return much like they do in Germany.
Ok thats enough ranting from me - but what about you! Let us know if you've got a fishy tail or seen stuff that's exploiting the ocean & we'll feature your story.
