[WATCH] New fisheries landing base in Marsa unveiled… sans scales

PArliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes inaugurates new fisheries landing base in Marsa

A new €250,000 landing base in Marsa will allow fisherman to unload and weigh their catches using new electronic scales, linked to an online data system.

Fishermen are being provided electronic chips to use with the new system and that will automatically update each fisherman’s data.

The new Marsa site – inaugurated on Wednesday by Roderick Galdes, parliamentary secretary for agriculture and fisheries – includes an office for fisheries department officials, coldroom and a facilities pillar to provide water and electricity to fishing boats as needed.

But the two electronic scales planned for the site are still awaiting planning permits and will be installed once permits are in hand.

Galdes said the EU Fisheries Fund had financed €80,000 of the project cost, which was the last major undertaking in the government’s plan to improve fishing ports.

Work carried out in Marsa, Marsaxlokk, St Paul’s Bay, Xemxija and Mgarr in Gozo, had seen the building or restoration of various disembarkation sites and quays.

Fisheries officials would be assisting fishermen to understand and adapt to the new system, which will be doing away with a lot of paperwork.

Fishermen would simply tie up to the quay, unload their catch, use their chip to log on to the system, weigh their catch and have it registered immediately.

The fish would be stored in the on-site coldroom if found to be illegal or not within regulation, or otherwise loaded into trucks and sent to the fish processing centre.

Galdes said the system would prove crucial when establishing regional fishing quotas as data would be updated in real-time as each fisherman logged in to weigh in a catch.