More tuna sold locally this summer

Fish sales increased by 13.2 per cent between July and September when compared to the same period last year, mostly due to larger catches of blue fin tuna, swordfish and lampuki.

The National Statistics Office said fresh fish landings amounted to 304,186 kilograms. This was due to higher landings of swordfish (+43.7 per cent), blue fin tuna (+57.1 per cent) and lampuki (+3.3 per cent).

The wholesale value of the fish sold increased from €1,633,461 to €1,671,174, or by 2.3 per cent.

The fresh data comes after EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg warned that "time is running out to save the blue fin tuna stock from collapse". Scientists and conservationists have been warning for the past years that the present rate of fishing is unsustainable.

At a meeting last Tuesday, EU fisheries ministers did not exclude a moratorium on fishing the species as they mandated the European Commission to negotiate next year's blue fin tuna quotas at next month's meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in Morocco.

Maltese fishermen landed 218,294 kilograms of fresh fish, up by 2.3 per cent over the comparative period last year and the wholesale value dropped by 3.7 per cent, down from €1,371,183 in the third quarter of 2007 to €1,320,262 in the corresponding period this year.

Gozitan fishermen landed 83,292 kilograms of fresh fish (+56.3 per cent) for a wholesale value of €338,345, an increase of 33.9 per cent over the third quarter of 2007.

A total of 2,600 kilograms were caught by foreign-flagged vessels, an increase of 30.7 per cent over the comparative period last year. The wholesale value of these foreign catches also increased by 30.4 per cent, from €9,634 in 2007 to €12,567.

It is a forgone conclusion that next year's quota of tuna will be smaller than this year's, but Maltese fishermen say they will be badly affected if fishing for this lucrative fish is restricted.