A recent scientific paper has lifted the lid on precious coral resources in Maltese coastal waters.
The paper was published in Marine Biodiversity Records and co-authored by Alan Deidun from the IOI-Malta Operational Centre at the University of Malta, Aaron Micallef, Georgios Tsounis from the Institute for Marine Sciences in Barcelona and Francesca Balzan, curator of the Palazzo Falson Museum in Mdina.
Compiled mainly from grey literature and through interviews with local fishermen and former directors of the Mediterranean Coral Fishing Company, instituted in 1984, reveals how over one ton of the precious red coral (Corallium rubrum) and over 250 kg of black coral were fished from Maltese coastal waters over the 1984-1987 period when the company was operational.
Former Food and Agriculture Organisation and General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean executive secretary Habib Ben Alaya has been quoted as saying, “Should a symbol be adopted for the Mediterranean Sea, which is the cradle of western civilisation, I believe the most fitting one would be a branch of red coral.”
The red coral harvested during these three years amounted to almost 1.5 per cent of the total biomass of the whole Mediterranean during this time.
The Mediterranean coral fishing company was set up with the aim of supplying jewellery markets abroad with, initially, raw coral material and, subsequently, even with the processed product.
The company even deployed a manned, midget submersible and a modified French destroyer to harvest such coral and employed a number of local and Italian fishermen. A map of coastal locations from where precious coral was fished is also included in the paper.
Fishermen generally used a device akin to the barra italiana, a heavy metal bar with nets attached at intervals along its length and which was dredged along the seabed to collect precious coral. The device caused a lot of damage to the seabed since it indiscriminately ploughed through different habitats and species.
After examination of a black coral specimen housed at the Natural History Museum in Mdina, it transpired the species in question could actually be Leiopathes glaberrima, which can survive for over 2,000 years.
“The discovery is momentous indeed as it sheds light on a long-lived species previously known locally to fishermen only, despite being harvested commercially for so long and being housed in the local natural history museum, with the discovery also being made in the year dedicated by the United Nations to biodiversity,” said Dr Deidun.
In the Mediterranean, black coral is only found in a handful of other locations, mainly concentrated in the northwest Mediterranean and in the Adriatic. In view of their slow growth rate and long life span, precious corals are considered to be highly vulnerable to human disturbance and the exploitation of precious coral species is strictly prohibited in Maltese waters.
Precious red coral is heavily exploited throughout the Medi-terranean, with such fisheries existing in Malta even as way back as the first century BC. This is confirmed through the presence of unworked white and pale red coral at the temple site in Tas-Silġ, Marsaxlokk.
Previous to this publication, the only precious coral resources recorded from Maltese waters were those located offshore, at considerable depths, mostly between Malta and Linosa, and more coastal waters were generally considered as bereft of precious coral.
Those interested in obtaining a copy of the paper may contact Dr Deidun at alan.deidun@um.edu.mt.