As tourist pressures threaten the pristine environment of Comino’s scenic Blue Lagoon, a voice from the lucrative tourist market is opposing plans to limit visitors to the island.
As you might expect, Captain Morgan Cruises owner and co-director Michael Zammit Tabona, Comino’s largest boat operator, vehemently opposes the idea of a cap on visitors to Comino.
Comino’s 2016 Natura 2000 management plan established that tourism to the Blue Lagoon should be effectively controlled to ensure it is “in harmony with the conservation needs of the site”.
Zammit Tabona, however, claims that a capping system is not feasible. “It’s a stupid idea, because such a system is impossible to administer. Who would you give preference to if you cap the number of boats that can dock at Comino? Zammit Tabona asked.
“About every 10 years, some idiot brings up such an idea. Likewise, why don’t we also cap the number of visitors to the Blue Grotto, St Julian’s or Valletta? We cannot run this island like a semi-communist state. No one should be prevented from visiting this gem.
“I will certainly never agree to any kind of capping. What would I do with my workers? Should I lay them off?
Comino is Malta’s latest environmental battlefront after Moviment Graffitti took direct action at the Blue Lagoon in June, removing unoccupied sunbeds and umbrellas from the sandy beach and jetty area which abusively line the beaches before the arrival of tourists.
Activists returned to Comino last weekend and released footage showing deckchairs were still being set up all over the pier and other sandy areas before tourists arrived.
And the sheer commercialization of the area and the frequency of boat trips to the island continues unabated. “After a few hours of relative tranquility, large boats begin to arrive and drop hundreds of tourists on the island. Moviment Graffitti demands that these large boats be banned from Comino,” the group had said.
The 2017 “Management Measures for Comino” document presented to the State by a working group of government entities, including the Malta Tourism Authority, had proposed limiting the number of boats and tourists visiting Comino to better keep the island.
About 4,000 visitors invaded the island in the summer of 2016 on organized cruises, and another 1,000 via water taxis from Ċirkewwa, Mġarr and Sliema.
Asked about the effects of visitors on the ecological sensitivity of Comino, Zammit Tabona did not want to take into account the ecological impact of intensive tourism on the island. “This argument doesn’t make sense, because Comino has been packed for years and it has never deteriorated. The Blue Lagoon is self-cleaning, thanks to the currents in the area,” Zammit Tabona said.
He added that it was private boats, not commercial boats, that polluted the bay, as they were not equipped with sewage tanks.
And Zammit Tabona also said he wanted to see real restaurants instead of the mobile kiosks currently on the island. “Comino’s bins are far from sufficient and almost overflowing with rubbish, which makes the place filthy. There must be continuous cleaning, day and night. It’s elementary.
With current activity in Comino still far from pre-pandemic levels, Zammit Tabona bodes well for a return to “normality” as tourism picks up. “We must not limit visits and pray to God that tourists continue to arrive. The country cannot survive without tourism,” said Zammit Tabona.
