The Aquaculture Section at Fort San Lucjan in Marsaxlokk has recently successfully obtained 2.5 million fertilized eggs of Seriola dumerilii, commonly known as Amberjack or accjol in Maltese.

These results came along with the help of Malta Fishfarming Ltd, a local fish farming company, that has been rearing the amberjack broodstock for the past five-and-a-half years under the supervision of the Aquaculture Section expertise, directed by Dr Robert Vassallo-Agius. The primary bottleneck in amberjack aquaculture production in the Mediterranean area is the production of eggs as reproductive maturation and spawning is very difficult in captivity. Current production depends on juveniles that are collected from the wild.

We are developing rearing systems for the breeders and their eventual offspring to produce viable juveniles that will be reared to market size fish. Primary results were obtained in 2005 when a major step towards the total control of the amberjack lifecycle was achieved through the production and collection of 300,000 eggs. This has only been successfully carried out on a few occasions in the Mediterranean area; the last reported success being in Greece in 2003. However, no scientific team has produced a reliable source of good quality eggs on a commercial scale in this region.

As in 2005, all broodstock showed very good sexual maturity as the spawning season approached, indicating that the advanced management techniques that are implemented on the breeders were successful for the second consecutive year. Improvements to the technology involved in egg collection from cages overcame several problems encountered in 2005 and yielded a greater number of viable eggs.

This year broodstock were induced to spawn and 2.5 million fertilized eggs were successfully collected. Two million of these eggs were incubated and an estimated 75% hatched in appropriate rearing tanks in the marine hatchery at Fort San Lucjan.

This is a long-term project and refined techniques for all stages including larval rearing and juvenile rearing in cages may take over five years to accomplish. The target for this year; to collect a larger number of viable, good quality eggs with a high hatching rate has been achieved and the hatched larvae are currently being reared at Fort San Lucjan.

Amberjack aquaculture is still in its infancy and more work needs to be done on the various stages of the lifecycle of this species. This has already been seen when the culture of sea bass and sea bream started developing a few decades ago. Nowadays commercial scale hatchery techniques for these two species are very advanced and will be implemented and adjusted for the amberjacks.

The amberjack has a great potential for aquaculture as it has a very rapid growth rate and excellent flesh quality. Obtaining large numbers of good quality fertilized eggs of any new species for aquaculture is a breakthrough as it is very difficult for some species like the amberjack to spawn due to various requirements that are difficult to duplicate in captivity. The next few years appear to be very promising for the continued development of sustainable aquaculture in Malta and there is a lot to look forward to on this front.

Apart from this amberjack project, there are plans to start or participate in future projects for the breeding of blue fin-tuna following the success obtained in the EU-funded Reprodott project (reproduction and domestication of tuna) that involved the co-ordination of Spain, Israel, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Malta.

These are very encouraging results indeed. They also show that the Nationalist Government constant policy has been over the years in support of this emerging industry. Malta's international mission has always been that of a Maritime nation and sustainable fish farming as practised nowadays in Malta leads the way not only in the Mediterranean basin but ocean wide. The diversification of new fish species for rearing activities and the ecosystem approach to the beneficial use of the sea are the pillars of any economic and environmental sustainability policy.

Dr Francis Agius

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Fisheries