Lampuki catches in decline push price up

Fewer Lampuki catches this year are pushing the price up of this staple in Malta’s summer menu, fishers have warned.

Lampuki is currently being sold at around €11.50 a kilo, with prices at this time of the season normally at around €4 a kilo.

Lampuki fisher Arthur Micallef said that in previous years, the fish market used to receive between 1,000 and 1,200 crates of lampuki daily, but this year catches have reduced drastically.

The fish market so far has received between 110 and 120 crates of Dolphin Fish daily.

“On Friday, not a single crate of lampuki was caught,” Micallef told MaltaToday.

But the dearth of lampuki this year may be part of a natural fluctuation in population numbers, according to marine biologist Alan Deidun.

Deidun said Lampuki is a migratory fish, and changes in population numbers are a normal occurrence.

“Due to the different factors such as sea temperatures, food and predators, you have no guarantee that fish will pass through the same routes,” he said. “Fluctuations are normal.”

He also said that it is still early in the season to identify the reason behind the small numbers witnessed so far.

The silver lining for lampuki lovers is that the fish caught this year appear to be larger when compared to previous years.

Micallef said this could be the result of warmer seas, although there is no scientific evidence to back this claim.

The larger sized fish are sold at a more expensive price due to the tastier meat the fish develops as it matures.

“Warmer seas this year might have led to early nesting,” Micallef said. “It’s not normal to have such large specimen at this time of year.”

He also played down claims that Maltese fishers are selling their catch on the black market out at sea.

“It would be crazy. For starters, weighing fish on a boat is impossible, as the rocking of the boat in the sea would produce an inaccurate reading,” he said.

But it would also make little sense to sell the fish at a cheaper price out at sea when lampuki can fetch higher prices in Malta.

Restaurateurs have had to make changes to their menu offerings as a result of the high prices.

Alain Grech, head chef at The Chef’s Table, said prices are expensive for all fish species.

In order to maximize profits, Grech said that he is using lampuki for his starter dishes, and is opting to use sea bass (spnott), snapper (pagella) and grouper (cerna) for the main dishes.

Lampuki fishing traces its roots back to Roman times, whose fishing techniques are still used to this very day.

Through a lottery system, the various licensed fishermen are given a location out at sea where they can lay out their apparatus called ‘cimi’ – a palm tree branch knotted with a floating jablo raft, which is than anchored to the seabed. Lampuki proceed to seek shade under the large palm leaf.

The fishermen move from one raft to another, and if the fish are spotted, they lay out a large fishing net which surrounds the resting fish. The net is then pulled into the boat and in the process hauling in the catch.

Lampuki migrate through Maltese waters during late August through to late December, and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

From being made into a pie to simply being cooked on a grill they are a staple in many households.