Lampuki catches soar in Gozo, drop in Malta

Catches of Lampuki dropped in Malta but almost doubled in Gozo in the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, figures issued today show.

The National Statistics Office said that overall, Lampuki catches were up 3.3 percent. But while in Malta landings of Dorado (lampuki) fell by 32.7 percent, in Gozo they were up by 92.5 percent. The data was collated from the fishmarket.

The NSO said that in the third quarter of 2008, the volume and wholesale value of fish landings rose by 13.2 and 2.3 per cent respectively over the same period last year. Fresh fish landings at the local fish market amounted to
304,186 kilograms, up by 13.2 per cent over the third quarter last year. This increase was the result of higher landings of Swordfish (+43.7 percent), Blue Fin Tuna (+57.1 percent) and Dorado (+3.3 percent). Landings of all the other major species decreased when compared to the third quarter of last year.

A slight increase of €37,713 (+2.3 per cent) was registered in the wholesale value, from €1,633,461 in the third quarter of 2007 to €1,671,174 in the corresponding period of 2008.

By weight, landings by fishermen in Malta represented 71.8 percent of total landings. The wholesale value of fish landings by Maltese fishermen dropped by 3.7 percent, from €1,371,183 in the third quarter of 2007 to €1,320,262 in the corresponding period of 2008. The decline in the wholesale value of fresh fish was mainly attributed to the decline in the volume of Dorado landings, whose wholesale value fell by 43.0 percent over the third quarter of 2007. This drop was somewhat mitigated by the increase in the wholesale value of Swordfish landings (+22.3 per cent), whose volume rose by 44.6 per cent over the comparative period last year.

In the third quarter this year, Gozitan fishermen landed 83,292 kilograms of fresh fish (+56.3 per cent) at the local fish market. Dorado was the main species landed. Landings of Shrimp and Bogue decreased by 33.6 percent and 33.0 percent respectively.