Commercial Fishing & Seafood Industry Contacts - Malta

Government Contacts & Information Resources for
Commercial Fishing, Seafood, Aquaculture, Marine & Oceans in Malta

Europêche - Association of national organisations of fishing enterprises in the European Union.

 

European Commission - Fisheries - The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the European Union's instrument for the management of fisheries and aquaculture. It was created to manage a common resource and to meet the obligation set in the original Treaties of the then European Community. Because fish are a natural and mobile resource they are considered as common property. In addition, the Treaties which created the Community stated that there should be a common policy in this area, that is, common rules adopted at EU level and implemented in all Member States.

 

General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - Consisting of 22 Member countries along with the European Community, the GFCM’s objectives are to promote the development, conservation, rational management and best utilization of living marine resources, as well as the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and connecting waters. Membership is open to both Mediterranean coastal states and regional economic organizations as well as to United Nations member states whose vessels engage in fishing in Mediterranean waters.

 

Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profile for Malta - aquatic species caught by country or area, by species items, by FAO major fishing areas, and year, for all commercial, industrial, recreational and subsistence purposes. The harvest from mariculture, aquaculture and other kinds of fish farming is also included. Malta Fisheries Country Profile - The Fisheries Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, prepares and publishes Fishery Country Profiles (FCP) for each country. Each FCP summarises the Department's assessment of activities and trends in fisheries and aquaculture for the country concerned. The profiles have a standard layout. Economic and demographic data are based on UN or World Bank sources; data on fisheries are generally those published by the FAO Fisheries Department

 

Government of Malta Information and Services Online

 

Fish and Farming Regulation and Control - Fish and Farming Regulation and Control Malta

 

Malta Aquaculture Research Centre - The National Aquaculture Centre (NAC) was set up at Fort San Lucjan in 1988 by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. The primary aim was to pioneer the development of fish farming as a new industrial activity in Malta. In 1992 a pilot marine hatchery was established for the production of sea bass and sea bream. After a slump in sea bass and bream production in the late 90’s, the centre covered research work on both fisheries and aquaculture and was renamed as the Malta Centre for Fisheries Sciences in 2001. Research on the amberjack started in 2006, when the hatchery technology was improved and the rearing of sea bream and amberjacks started. Since then, the hatchery has developed substantially and research is now carried out on the amberjack, blue-fin tuna, sea bream and sea bass with other species such as the grouper and meagre in the pipeline.

Today the Centre has once again become an aquaculture centre, named the Malta Aquaculture Research Centre (MARC) - the only research facility on Malta for hatching marine species for mariculture. Many improvements have been made in the marine hatchery to accommodate amberjack and bluefin tuna larvae. The main stream of research focuses on the diversification of species to be produced for mariculture, with success obtained on a national level with the Amberjack Project and on an EU level with the SELFDOTT project.

MARC also houses the Turtle Rehabilitation Unit that falls under the same Ministry.

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Some fish species found in Mediterranean:

Latin name

Citharus linguatula

Eutrigla gurnardus

Helicolenus dactylopterus

Lepidorhombus boscii

Lophius budegassa

Lophius piscatorius

Merluccius merluccius

Micromesistius potassou

Mullus barbatus

Mullus surmuletus

Pagellus acarne

Pagellus bogaraveo

Pagellus erythrinus

Pagrus pagrus

Phycis blenoides

Raja clavata

Solea vulgaris

Spicara flexuosa

Trachurus mediterraneus

Trachurus trachurus

Trisopterus min. capelanus

Zeus faber

Aristaeomorpha foliacea

Aristeus antennatus

Nephrops norvegicus

Parapenaeus longirostris

Eledone cirrhosa

Eledone moschata

Illex coindetti

Loligo vulgaris

Octopus vulgaris

Sepia oficinalis

 

Ocean Health Index Malta - The Ocean Health Index is a valuable tool for the ongoing assessment of ocean health. By providing a means to advance comprehensive ocean policy and compare future progress, the Index can inform decisions about how to use or protect marine ecosystems. The Index is a collaborative effort, made possible through contributions from more than 65 scientists/ocean experts and partnerships between organizations including the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Sea Around Us, Conservation International, National Geographic, and the New England Aquarium. Information for Malta

 

Malta Maritime Authority - The objectives of the Authority can be summarised succinctly:
To market Malta as a world maritime centre;
To facilitate foreign trade;
To render the administration, services and operations or ports and yachting centres more efficient and cost-effective;
To provide a sound financial basis for the Authority and achieve target return on investment;
To standardise practices in line with the European Union;
To attract cruise liner traffic;
To market the Malta flag abroad;
To further complement maritime business activity;

 

National Statistics office of Malta - The National Statistics Office came into being in March 1947. However official statistics had been compiled and published for a long time before . In 1872, an official publication called The Malta Blue Book featured a statistical view of Malta and its Dependencies for the past ten years – 1863 to 1872  - covering the relevant time series for population, education, finance, sale of public sites, imports, exports and shipping. One of the first volumes of The Blue Book of the Colony of Malta was published in 1851, and comprised, among other things, a statistical abstract on population emanating from the 1842 Census.

 

Blue-fin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) Population Dynamics research programme
Research on fisheries biology of blue-fin tuna and swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the Mediterranean Sea. Malta is participating by collecting fishing effort and landings data as well as biological data together with Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Italy. The results of the analyses of the pooled national data are used to issue recommendations (eg. total allowable catches, closed seasons) on the exploitation of these Mediterranean stocks.

 

 

AQUASTAT is FAO's global information system on water and agriculture developed by the Land and Water Division. It collects, analyses and disseminates data and information by country and by region. Its aim is to provide users interested in global, regional and national analyses with comprehensive information related to water resources and agricultural water management across the world, with emphasis on countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Information for Malta

 

An international bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean - In the Mediterranean, the main demersal fisheries are localized on narrow continental shelves along the coasts. Experiences during the last decades in this area have shown that it was difficult to obtain a global estimate of the demersal resources from fishing activity, especially due to the very large dispersion of the landing places, the important diversity of the species caught and the scarceness of reliable statistics. This situation has induced different European Union States to conduct national programmes for the assessment of these resources from repetitive trawl surveys. A lot of the demersal resources in the Mediterranean are considered as fully or over-exploited.