The balmy weather during the first three months this year has been good to many, not least the fishing community, with the catches of fish landed during the period showing an increase of seven per cent to 89,122 kilogrammes during the March quarter.

According to the National Statistics Office, favourable weather conditions in the first quarter of the year was mainly responsible for the increase. The wholesale value of fish landings rose by Lm48,084 (+28.2 per cent) from Lm170,666 in the first quarter of 2006 to Lm218,750 in the first quarter of 2007.

There was a huge increase in swordfish catches (+95.1 per cent), bogue (+60.7 per cent) and stone bass (+53.5 per cent) and this was mainly responsible for the increase in fish landings.

The volume of fish landings by Maltese fishermen increased by 37 per cent over the first quarter of 2006. Increases were recorded in swordfish (+93.9 per cent), stone bass (+47.0 per cent) and bogue (+33.1 per cent). But there was an 80.4 per cent fall in landings of the housewife’s favourite fish, the dorado. The proportion of landings by Maltese fishermen amounted to 75.9 per cent of total landings, up by 16.6 percentage points (+28.0 per cent) over the corresponding period last year.

During the first quarter of 2007, an increase of Lm55,247 (+44.7 per cent) in the wholesale value was registered. This increase was the result of higher average wholesale prices per kilogramme of stone bass and swordfish, which was complemented by an increase in the landings of these two species.

Gozitan landings

During the first quarter, however, Gozitan fishermen did not benefit so much from the weather, landing 19,073 kilogrammes of fish, a fall of 37.9 per cent. Dorado landings, being the main species caught, declined by 68.8 per cent compared to the first quarter in 2006. Bogue landings increased by 82.2 per cent while shrimp landings were down by 74.4 per cent.

The wholesale value of Gozitan landings declined by 15.8 per cent over the comparative period. The decline was the result of lower catches of shrimp and dorado despite fetching higher prices for shrimp (+27.9 per cent) and dorado (+65.5 per cent) compared to the same period last year.

During the first quarter of 2007, foreign flagged vessels landed a total of 2,403 kilogrammes valued at Lm6,165. This represented a fall of 25.3 per cent in fish landings and a fall of 11.8 per cent in the wholesale value of fish landings compared to the same period in 2006.

The fish price index for the month of March 2007 stood at 123.28 points, up 1.50 points (+1.2 per cent) from March 2006. In March 2007, the volume index increased by 10.10 points (+64.7 per cent) to 25.72 points over the corresponding period last year.