Fishermen claim official lampara catches being seriously over-valued

Fishermen who spoke to MaltaToday have said that the market value attributed to the 2014 fish landings by lampara vessels is up to 10 times higher than the real value of the catches.

Last week, MaltaToday reported that figures in a government report published in September show that in 2014 alone Maltese lampara fishermen hauled a staggering 928 tonnes of fish, worth over €4.1 million (one tonne is 1,000 kgs).

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This works out at an average of €4.45 but a number of fishermen who spoke to MaltaToday on condition of anonymity said that most of the fish caught by lampara vessels in Maltese seas – mainly mackerel and sardines – is mainly sold for a paltry €0.50/kg. Based on the official landing figures reported for 2014, the market value would be nearer €464,000.

‘Catches quoted by the ministry do not add up’

Most of this fish is sold directly to companies operating the numerous fish farms and is used as fish food.

“The catches quoted by the ministry in the report are incredible, things simply do not add up,” a fisherman told MaltaToday.

Another said that if the figures quoted by the report – entitled ‘Fishing Effort Adjustment Plan for Lampara Fishery’ – were correct “we would all be millionaires by now.”

The catches sold directly to fish farms are not inspected by the fisheries department and the statistics are based entirely on entries on the vessels’ logbooks.

The director general of the department of fisheries and aquaculture, Andreina Fenech Farrugia confirmed that the department “based its information on the amounts declared in the logbook of the vessel.”

Asked how the department came to a conclusion that the catches were worth over €4.1 million, Fenech Farrugia said that “since this was a statistical exercise it was calculated on the average market price for all the sales reported of the species involved.”

In an exercise carried out by MaltaToday, the average fishmongers’ price of locally caught mackerel is between €2 to €6, depending on availability and the shop’s margin of profit.

Despite the higher frequency of inspections at port by department officials, the fish sold directly to fish farms is not inspected.

Yet, while Fenech Farrugia claimed that “in the case of the lampara fishery all landings are inspected” she said “the value of the catches is reported through sales notes by those selling the fish.”

The department currently employs 39 inspectors on a shift basis. In 2014 and 2015, 201 and 259 inspections were carried out respectively on the 14 vessels registered for lampara fishing.

Fishermen and industry sources told MaltaToday that though the official registry includes 14 vessels, only six or seven are active lampara fishing vessels.

Industry sources said that a haul of 928 metric tonnes in one year is unheard of. The catch translates into 61,000 boxes of 15kg each or some 4,300 boxes of fish per registered lampara vessel.

The statistics are all the more surprising when compared to the figures in 2010, when a larger fleet caught 120 tonnes of fish.

The lampara season traditionally lasts five months, between April and August, and out of the 14 registered vessels only three have a gross tonnage capacity exceeding 50 tonnes. Three vessels have a gross tonnage below 10.

In contrast, 17 large vessels registered as trawlers collectively caught 73.65 tonnes of fish, with a market value of €1.8 million.

Moreover, lampara fishery is a seasonal activity and most of the lampara vessels are also engaged in other types of fishing activities such as swordfish, tuna and lampuki (dorado).

Asked to provide the amount and value of catches for the individual vessels on the registry, the department said that due to data protection issues figures per vessel cannot be provided.