Moviment Graffitti has released a video highlighting what it says is the main driver of chaos at Comino’s Blue Lagoon – the arrival of large commercial tourist boats. The footage captures the transformation of the site from a serene nature reserve in the early morning into an overcrowded, noisy tourist hub by mid-afternoon.
The group is calling for a ban on these vessels, which they argue “funnel mass tourism” into a protected site. According to Moviment Graffitti, more than 10 large boats — each carrying several hundred passengers — can berth at the Blue Lagoon at any given time, with many operators making multiple trips daily. They say the environmental impact is “massive” and that local families have been effectively pushed out of the area by commercial exploitation.
This latest criticism follows recent government measures to cap visitor numbers to Comino at 4,000 at any one time through a ticketing and surveillance system. As reported previously, this will be one of the rare instances in which the government will be actively monitoring ordinary citizens’ movements. Questions remain over whether the capping system is truly aimed at protecting the environment, or whether it is designed to safeguard the interests of large-scale operators.
Moviment Graffitti argues that the government’s new measures fail to address the real problem: the mass arrival of tourists by sea. “By mid-afternoon, nobody is able to enjoy the area for what it should be – a little piece of paradise,” the group stated. They maintain that if the Blue Lagoon is to remain a viable nature reserve, large vessels delivering hundreds of visitors at a time must be banned.
The government has yet to publish Comino’s long-promised carrying capacity study, leaving the public to question whether conservation or commercial gain is truly driving policy decisions.
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