Halfway through the lampuki fishing season, Maltese fishermen have only caught a fifth of last year’s total catch, according to data from the Malta Food Agency.
Lampuki season typically kicks off in August and runs until the end of December.
But with the season now in full flow, this year’s catch is a drop in the ocean compared to most previous years, with a little under 76,000kg of lampuki caught between August and mid-October.
In 2023, almost 376,000kg were caught throughout the entire season, suggesting that the figures at the halfway point of the season hovered around the 188,000kg mark, 60% more than this year.
Previous years were even more successful. Maltese fishermen caught 411,000kg of lampuki in 2021 and 430,000kg in 2022.
Price per kilogramme more than doubled
It’s no surprise that customers are having to fork out more when buying lampuki at their local fishmonger, with some reportedly paying as much as €15 per kg.
While fishmongers and supermarkets typically bought lampuki from the fish market (pixkerija) for roughly €3.60 per kilo in previous years, this has now shot up to almost €8 per kilo so far this year.
Fishmongers and supermarkets then top up these figures, taking into account their costs and profit margins, to establish the final sale price of the fish.
In total, fishmongers and supermarkets spent a total of almost €1.4m on lampuki from the fish market last year and over €1.5m the year before that.
Despite the higher average price, the fish’s scarcity means that this year’s total sales are unlikely to reach those figures, meaning less money in fishermen’s pockets.
Blame the warm waters, fishermen say
Although some have put the shortage down to a series of issues, from more widespread lampuki fishing in Spain’s waters to increases in predatory wild tuna populations, the president of the fishing cooperative, Michael Carabott, pours cold water on these, arguing that they are red herrings.
Ultimately it is the warmer-than-usual sea temperatures that is to blame, he insists.
“Our colleagues in other parts of the Mediterranean where sea temperatures are cooler, such as Montenegro, are reporting strong seasons,” Carabott told Times of Malta.
“Even in Malta, some areas were better than others,” he added, pointing to how fishermen in south-westerly areas (Lbiċ) fared reasonably well, while those around Gozo and Marsaxlokk barely reported any catches at all.
The warmer sea temperatures, Carabott explained, drive lampuki into deeper waters in search of shelter and cooler waters, forcing fishermen to cast their nets deeper for their catch.
This is not the first time this has happened, with fishermen harking back to the distant 1987 season, when they reported a similar drought of lampuki, only for numbers to rebound over the next few years.
But this year, Carabott says, fishermen are struggling to find a trace of lampuki even in deep waters.
This phenomenon is also affecting other fish, most notably swordfish, Carabott says, with catches down across a range of fish species.