Malta’s maritime resources

Abstract

The organisation of the sixth European Maritime Day (EMD) in Malta last week drew some welcome limelight on Malta’s maritime credentials, which are so often discarded, despite the archipelago’s firmly anchored maritime ethos. For instance, Malta’s territorial waters are 14 times bigger than its land area, while the island’s 25-nautical-mile Fisheries Management Zone is almost 40 times the same land area. According to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Malta’s coastal zone includes almost 20 per cent of the island’s surface area, with the archipelago’s total coastline extending for 273 kilometres. This is more than half the length of the coastline of Poland, which in turn is roughly 1,000 times the size of the Maltese archipelago.