44 anglers, 48 hours of fishing, 68 kgs of fish caught

The seventh edition of the Kingfisher Sport Association's 48-hour marathon came to an end yesterday at 6 p.m. with 68 kilogrammes of fish having been caught, and thrown back into the sea.

The marathon was, appropriately, given its name, won by a team called White Sharks, made up of Pierre Poulton, Ramon Vella, Emy Cassar, and Marvin Degiorgio, catching more than nine kilogrammes of fish.

Joe Stoner also got a prize for catching the biggest fish, a mullet, which weighed 740 grammes. The other fish weighed an average of 300 grammes each.

A total of 11 teams with four anglers each took part in the marathon, which also included entertainment on Saturday evening. It was held to raise money for the Park of Friendship. A total of Lm2,500 was collected by yesterday afternoon. More was expected to be collected later.

The anglers fished on a roster basis, with two fishing and two resting. Most of the fish caught were bream and mullet, which are very common in port.

One of the rules was that only one rod per angler could be used at a time, with a maximum of two hooks. However any kind of bait could be used.

Organiser Stephen Johnston said yesterday that although fish landings were slow at daytime, they picked up between 5 and 8 p.m. on Saturday when more fish seemed to be caught.

One advantage of the site chosen was that the incoming and outgoing boats created a movement in the seabed, bringing up the worms, which in turn brought the fish in.

Mr Johnston said that the authorities in Malta seemed to close their eyes to abuse, even when this was brought to their attention.

Markers, for example, were put up in port to indicate from where gull nets, fishing nets with a fine mesh, could not be used. The problem with this kind of nets was that they did not give the fish time to grow and reproduce. In spite of telling the authorities about the abuse, not much was done about it.

Kingfisher is a shore fishing club set up 10 years ago. It has 120 members and its motto is: "Conserve fish stocks to conserve the sport".

Mr Johnston said some argued that the sport followed by the club was cruel. The club's reply to that was that most of the lines members used were very fine, giving the fish caught a fair chance of getting away.

The association also organises two fishing leagues each year - one for singles, the other for doubles.

The marathon was sponsored by Mr Fish.