Tuna farming season over

The hectic times for tuna farming are temporarily over for Azzopardi Fisheries - the season was concluded on Christmas eve, with the Yuletide period seeing over 200 tons of tuna exported to Japan.

The seabed is now to be inspected to see if any damage was done - the company is to conduct two Bentic surveys each year, as laid down by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, for this purpose. One survey will be undertaken at the start of the tuna season in May, the other at the end of the season.

Azzopardi Fisheries also plan to invite the media to visit the tuna farming site, to show the state of the seabed via underwater video.

The fortnight preceding Christmas was particularly hectic, with tons of tuna going by airfreight, using Air Malta and Lufthansa services.

Lufthansa in fact operated the bigger Airbus 300/600 to Malta, to be able to take 12 tonnes of tuna on each flight.

Tuna fish caught in the wild gain at least 10 per cent in weight in the tuna farms before being exported. They are fed mostly shrimps, sardines, squid and mackerel.