The sea bream bonanza that so delighted Xemxija fishermen during last week’s storm continued to keep locals busy through to Friday, with fishermen catching several bucketfuls of the fish using just their fishing rods.

Photo and video uploaded to Facebook showed people lining up at Balluta in Sliema and Mġarr Harbour in Gozo as they reeled in fish after fish in the afternoon sun, stuffing buckets with awrat [sea bream].

Not all amateur fishermen were thrilled by the turn of events.

"Fishing nets have been illegally placed all over the bay to catch anything that passes through," wrote one on Facebook. "Resulting in the destruction of juvenile specimen of any kinds of organisms that populate our bays."

The sea bream escaped from a fish farm pen during last Sunday’s storm, with many washing up onto the Xemxija promenade, in video footage which made odd news headlines across the globe.

A Times of Malta report about the washed-up fish being sold at €2 a pop prompted health authorities to warn people against eating the fish, saying among other things that the farmed fish could contain traces of medicinal products.

Judging by the videos being uploaded to social media, amateur fishermen were not put off by the warnings and reached for their rods just the same.

Instead, it was professional fishermen who said they were affected. “Nobody is buying our fish,” two collectives said earlier this week. 

Barely any elbow room at Balluta. Photo: Facebook