With reports indicating that this year's lampuki (dolphinfish) season has been considerably weak compared to other years, The Malta Independent on Sunday asked the Aquaculture and Fisheries Parliamentary Secretary, Alicia Bugeja Said, what the possible causes and consequences of this season's catch could be, as well as whether she expects next year to be a return to the catch of previous years.

She replied that this topic is something which is of particular interest to consumers, as usually the lampuki prices would have stabilised and become more affordable at this time of the year. "It is a reality that this year, our fishermen unfortunately caught only one-third of the haul that they usually catch, so in terms of numbers, it was really low and was quite worrying. As a scientist, we are hoping that this was a one-off event because trends show that there are seasons where there is a decline in catches, but this happens every ten or fifteen years, so we are hoping that next year it won't be the same."

The Parliamentary Secretary stated that the government is in contact with different countries around the Mediterranean, "including Spain, Tunisia, and Italy, where through the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), we are trying to understand what the issue has been." She continued that she has spoken directly to fishermen to try to understand what could have led to the decline. There are different theories, she said, continuing that some have said that the seas were warmer than usual, which may have caused the fish to stay further offshore, while others have said that the amount of tuna in our waters increased, and so the extra presence of tuna is having a predatory effect as the tuna eat other fish. "This ecosystem relationship where tuna predates on lampuki is studied, and there could be a link there, however, we also need to see what the fishing effort and landings were for the whole Mediterranean, as it could be that only Malta experienced this, or it could be other countries as well."

The comparative analysis between the Mediterranean countries is set to commence in January, she said, as that is when the lampuki season ends. She continued that based on the analysis, the GFCM will have discussions to see how the causes that led to the decline can be reduced.

With one of the potential causes of this season's low catch being warmer seas, she remarked that "you can't control nature". She said that as a country, Malta cannot combat climate change on its own as Malta contribution very little to global warming. "So even though climate change could be impacting the lampuki catches, it's something that is beyond our control."

The Parliamentary Secretary said that the price of lampuki this year could have been much higher if the government had not subsidised the fishermen's fuel. She remarked that with fuel being so expensive due to factors such as inflation, the result of lampuki season could have either been that fishermen stayed ashore so as not to risk paying high fuel costs and not catching anything, or they would go and offload the expenses of fuel onto the consumers with higher fish prices. With that in mind, she said that the help that the government gave to "keep the fuel costs relatively stable" has allowed consumers to still enjoy lampuki.

Bugeja Said was asked if there are any indications so far from her discussions regarding how other countries have fared in the season, to which she replied that scientists have informed her that the situation seems to have been quite similar in other countries as well.