Fishermen prepare for <i>lampuki</i> season

Fishermen at Marsaxlokk were yesterday afternoon preparing their seacraft for the lampuki season which officially starts today.

Thirty-year-old Frankie Caruana will take his boat, Il-Lunzjata, some 80 nautical miles out at sea in search of a good catch and spend two days on the water. However, he is unlikely to venture out before the wind dies down.

Karmenu Zammit said that fishermen never stopped. Once the lampuki season, which could last until January, was over, they immediately started preparing for the next one.

As a result, the number of Maltese fishermen was fast declining, so much so that he had had to seek the services of a Tunisian fisherman.

However, crews were smaller these days due to better equipment.

Lampuki, also known as dolphin fish, grow from pinhead-sized dots to three kilogrammes in just six months. Fish weighing 10 kilos are not older than two years.

Each fisherman applying with the Fisheries Department to fish for lampuki is granted a line, known as a rimja, along which floats, known as kannizzati.

The rimji were blessed during the annual ceremony at Marsaxlokk yesterday evening.

Parliamentary Secretary Francis Agius said lampuki fishing was very important for Maltese and Gozitan fishermen. Over the past five years, more than two million kilogrammes of lampuki were caught - worth Lm1.9 million.

Dr Agius said that Malta this year had 130 rimji at its disposal and there were 113 applicants including amateurs. The department was doing its utmost to help fishermen and had granted Lm1.8 million in financial assistance since 2003.

He said that another Lm368,000 had been requested for fleet upgrade and renewal. Other assistance for the fishing and processing industry amounted to Lm263,000.