Malta's national fish, the lampuka, may be the next possible victim of climate change. Yet over the past few years it has been overshadowed by the blue fin tuna stock, which is verging on collapse unless illegal activity can be reeled in.
With Malta under international scrutiny over tuna industry activities, the obligation to improve fisheries management has been subsequently high, with overspill benefits for other fisheries such as lampuki. Studies are now needed to back up policies for making sure the migrating lampuki return every August.
The Fisheries Control Department, set up last year by the Resources Ministry, hopes to conduct a long-overdue overhaul of fisheries legislation. Some amended laws originally date back to 1934. Department Director Andreina Fenech Farrugia explains: "Since we found ourselves in the middle of the bluefin tuna activity, which took priority, we had to postpone some other issues."
For its size, Malta now has a large compliance unit covering activity across the whole region. Pens in waters off Malta, the biggest tuna farming site in the world, receive blue fin tuna netted from the wild by fishermen from different countries.
With catch effort so intense, the bulk of Europe's tuna quota can easily be used up within 30 days, mainly by Spanish, Italian and French purse seiners, starting from May 1. The season will be closed early if it is determined that the allowable catch limit is reached ahead of time.
In response to events, the tuna recovery plan has snowballed into a very complex control mechanism with highly restrictive quotas - a notoriously difficult tool to manage. Quotas are a key tool to restore spawning stock, but there has to be very tight accounting.
Fisheries Control Department chief officer Glen Quelch rates the complexity of the system above and beyond any problems with non-compliance: "It has evolved into a hugely complex control system which demands a great amount of administrative time to implement."
Despite an extra 10 fisheries protection officers added to the department, professional capability is stretched to the limit. In addition to EU technical help and training, the Community Fisheries Control Agency provides support in the area of operational coordination.
Landing officers have to be present for any landing of bluefin tuna, swordfish or trawled fish at one of four designated Maltese ports. Five observers are contracted to monitor bluefin tuna operations at sea.
Resource manager for capture fisheries Mark Dimech leads a team entrusted with monitoring. He is in charge of the national data monitoring programme which keeps a close watch on fishery statistics and provides advice to the department on management options.
Economic activity of the fishing industry is used as an indicator, providing any data the department may request. Cooperation with fishermen has increased through an EU programme to bridge the gap between fishery scientists and the fishermen.
The department is also forging links with recreational fishermen to improve the knowledge base of this sector regarding compliance. New measures may arise after specialists complete ongoing surveys of inshore and recreational fishing activity.
There are funds to improve port facilities and safety conditions or selectivity of fishing gear with a view to better management. However, anything which leads to increased effort or efficiency in catching an already over-fished resource is unlikely to attract funding.
New regulations for illegal, unidentified and undetected (IUU) fishing came into force at the start of the year. This calls for total control on imports and exports from and to third countries, and entry of third country commercial fishing vessels into community waters. The complex rules of the tuna recovery plan go some way towards meeting the IUU regulations.
"Theoretically it is a good control system but it will prove very difficult to manage in practice," notes the Chief Fisheries Officer.
The department is also very conscious of the effects of climate change on lampuki, fish we have taken for granted until now. Changes in sea temperature may be among the reasons for a marked shift in the lampuki's migratory route over these past few years. The Mediterranean's eastern basin is getting warmer, forcing mature fish to seek cooler western waters, better suited to spawning.
An increase in the size of lampuki caught around Malta has been observed as a possible result of global warming. Longline fishermen are catching larger lampuki of reproductive age, previously a rarity in these waters, leaving less spawning stock in the sea.
If the government fails to initiate measures to take care of this important resource, no one else will do it for us.
If we do nothing, the lampuki could one day disappear from waters accessible to Maltese fishermen.
Around 100 years ago, fishermen began to divide up fishing grounds by ballot drawn for each boat, a system still in use today. But in the past 10 to 15 years, Sicilian and Tunisian boats have been competing with Maltese boats for lampuki, adding further pressure on the limited stock.
More changes are around the corner, as traditional palm-frond kannizzati, or fish aggregating devices, are switched to synthetic alternatives in response to red palm weevil disease.
A number of factors may have led to a very sharp decline in the lampuki catch, which dropped by over half between 2005 and 2008. More studies are needed to back up a call for aid to help stop any further decline in the species.
This year, the Capture Fisheries section within MRRA plans to carry out a lampuki stock assessment in an attempt to determine whether the current level of capture is sustainable or not.
Finding out how much fishing effort stocks can tolerate may help to raise dialogue on this issue within the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, which also governs lampuki fishing.
With five scientists and an adequate research budget, the ministry aims to come up with solid data for better management solutions setting sustainable limits.
The European Fisheries Fund, managed by the Fish and Farming Regulation and Control Division, supports Malta's operational fisheries programme until 2013. We are now in the mid-term year, a year of evaluation.
Lampuki have completed their annual migration past these islands for another year.
Let's hope we are wise enough to sustain their passage for years to come.