Summary
Comino is Malta’s third island, sitting between Malta and Gozo in the Strait of Comino. Roughly 3.5 square kilometres of karst garigue, shrubland, and protected seabird colonies, formally part of the Għajnsielem municipality. It hosts the Blue Lagoon, one of Malta’s most visited natural attractions, and the Comino Hotel at San Niklaw Bay. The entire island is a Natura 2000 Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area for birds.
The island
Comino is 3.5 km² of globigerina limestone and karst garigue, rising to 75 metres at its highest point. The name comes from cumin (kemmun in Maltese), which was historically grown on the island. It has never had a substantial permanent population in modern times. A handful of residents live among the hotel grounds and farm buildings.
The island holds several historic structures. Santa Marija Tower, a coastal watchtower built by the Knights of St John in 1618 as part of the island’s coastal defence chain, was restored by Din l-Art Ħelwa and now operates as a heritage site. The Santa Marija Chapel dates to the same period. There are remains of an old isolation hospital, agricultural buildings, and military batteries from the British period.
Comino’s isolation has preserved ecological features lost elsewhere in Malta. The surrounding reefs host posidonia seagrass meadows, octopus, cuttlefish and moray eels. On land, the Maltese wall lizard persists, and the island is rat-free in its interior sections, which is why it remains critically important for ground-nesting seabirds.
Protected status
The entire island and its surrounding waters are designated as:
- Natura 2000 Special Area of Conservation of International Importance (Kemmuna, Kemmunett, Il-Hagriet ta’ Bejn il-Kmiemen)
- Special Protection Area for birds under the EU Birds Directive
- A designated nature reserve
- A bird sanctuary
- A marine protected area surrounding the island
Comino hosts internationally important breeding colonies of Yelkouan Shearwater, European Storm-petrel and Scopoli’s Shearwater. BirdLife Malta has documented light-pollution and boat-noise impacts on nesting success. Rat predation, linked to visitor food waste, remains the single largest threat to breeding seabirds.
Under the EU Habitats Directive, Article 6(2) requires the state to maintain the site at favourable conservation status. Article 6(3) requires an appropriate assessment before any plan or project that could affect it. These are not optional.
The Blue Lagoon
The stretch of turquoise water between Comino and Cominotto is the Blue Lagoon, Malta’s most heavily visited natural attraction. At summer peak, daily visitor numbers reached 12,000 before a cap was introduced in May 2025. The system limits visitors to 4,000 at any given time, divided across three daily slots. Tour-boat day-tripper numbers were also reduced from 10,000 to 5,000.
The cap arrived after years of unrestricted access normalised ecological damage: seabird disturbance, sewage leakage, sunbed sprawl, and commercial kiosks operating without valid concessions. The kiosks at the Blue Lagoon have operated without a competitive tender since at least 2015. The Malta Tourism Authority has repeatedly delayed the promised tender process.
The hotel and concession
The Comino Hotel at San Niklaw Bay and the bungalows at Santa Marija Bay sit on a long-term concession originally granted in 1960 to John Gaul’s Comino Development Company Ltd by the British colonial administration. The concession was renegotiated and reduced several times (1963, 1975, 1989) and eventually ended up in the hands of Kemmuna Ltd, which Hili Ventures acquired in 2019.
The concession is the subject of the proposed Six Senses luxury resort, which would involve uprooting approximately 800 trees on the Natura 2000 site. That fight is covered in detail in the Saving Comino campaign page.
News and articles
PN MP asks Ombudsman to investigate emergency Comino works
April 2021
In April 2021, PN MP Robert Cutajar asked the Ombudsman to investigate emergency works carried out on the service culvert along the dirt road leading to the Blue Lagoon. The works, undertaken between February and March 2021, proceeded without a Planning Authority permit. Cutajar argued that the “emergency” framing was being used to bypass scrutiny on a Natura 2000 site, and that the precedent would be dangerous if left unchallenged. The episode became one of the earliest public tests of how procedural shortcuts could erode the island’s protected status.
Source: Lovin Malta, April 2021.
Moviment Graffitti clears out Blue Lagoon deckchairs
June 2022
In June 2022, Moviment Graffitti activists cleared out deckchairs at the Blue Lagoon in a high-profile direct action, reclaiming the public beach and forcing the issue of unauthorised commercial occupation into national debate. The action triggered sustained pressure that led to a 65% reduction in the deckchair and sunbed footprint by May 2023.
Source: Moviment Graffitti, June 2022.
Court orders Lands Authority to publish Comino concessions
16 October 2024
On 16 October 2024, a court ordered the Lands Authority to publish every land concession granted on Comino, after a Moviment Graffitti Freedom of Information request. The ruling opened a window into concession terms that had remained opaque for decades.
Source: Court ruling, October 2024.
Blue Lagoon visitor cap launches, then stalls
May 2025
On 1 May 2025, a free online booking system launched, capping Blue Lagoon visitors at 4,000 at a time across three daily slots (8-13, 13:30-17:30, 18-22). Some 4,800 visitors used the system on day one. It was suspended days later pending court review after ferry operators filed a prohibitory injunction. On 15 May, Judge Miriam Hayman cleared the system to resume.
Source: Court ruling, May 2025.
Editorial: Blue Lagoon cap arrives years too late
3 May 2025
In an editorial on 3 May 2025, The Malta Independent on Sunday argued that the cap was welcome in principle but too late in practice: years of unrestricted access had already normalised the scale of damage, and an online booking queue could not repair seabird disturbance, sewage leakage or sunbed sprawl that had been allowed to become the baseline.
Source: The Malta Independent on Sunday editorial, 3 May 2025.
MTA delays promised tender for Blue Lagoon kiosks
8 February 2026
On 8 February 2026, The Shift News reported that the Malta Tourism Authority had delayed the long-promised competitive tender for the Blue Lagoon’s kiosks and beach concessions, meaning the 2026 summer season would again run under the incumbent operators - Daniel Refalo and Mark Cutajar, the latter the brother of former Labour MEP Josianne Cutajar. The kiosks have operated without a valid concession since at least 2015.
Source: The Shift News, Ivan Camilleri, 8 February 2026.
Nine NGOs warn over Noma Island off Comino
6 March 2026
On 6 March 2026, nine environmental NGOs warned that a 1,750-square-metre motorised trimaran branded as “Noma Island” was being marketed as Malta’s “fourth island” and anchored in waters off Comino. The vessel is a rebranded version of “Canua Island”, which had been expelled from France’s Côte d’Azur for ecological and regulatory reasons. The NGOs argued that the platform functioned as a floating resort extension of the pressure already built up around Comino, bypassing planning law by operating offshore while still placing its daily load squarely inside the Natura 2000 site around the island.
Source: Newsbook, 6 March 2026.