Reference is made to your recent extended coverage regarding the tuna farming industry. The figure mentioned of over 11 million kg includes the bluefin tuna which is transhipped in Malta which is not mentioned in the article.
Bluefin tuna farmed in other Member States and Third Country farms is harvested onboard processing vessels. These processing vessels then come over to Malta where transhipment of bluefin tuna takes place from the processing vessels into containers. These containers then continue their journey to Japan. Malta validates the original Statistical Documents issued by the Flag Country of the fishing vessel or else issues a Re-export certificate. This does not mean that the bluefin tuna was farmed in Malta. It only means that the transhipping process took place in Malta and the Maltese authorities validated the original statistical documents.
Please find below clarifications for the figures mentioned in the article:
[Bluefin tuna farmed in 2007 – 7,983,435 kg; Bluefin tuna lost in storm – 1,253,189 kg;
Carried over to 2008- 1,346,639 kg]
Thus from these figures it is very clear that the maximum amount of farmed tuna in Maltese farms in 2007 and harvested in the period July 2007 – March 2008 is 5,383,607 of input tuna. This tuna would grow to: 5,383,607 x 1.25 = 6,729,509 kg by harvesting time (A)
The 1.25 is the maximum growth factor allowed for farmed bluefin tuna according to EU regulations which transpose ICCAT recommendations.
Moreover bluefin tuna caught by Maltese the traditional longlines amounts to 143,700 kg (B)
Bluefin tuna farmed in other countries and transhipped in the period mentioned tellies to 4.433,282 kg (C). This figure corresponds to the following breakdown (see box).
Thus when you add A+B+C the figure amounts to 11,306,491 kg which is the figure being mentioned in the article “Tuna export figures” Maltatoday 30th July.
Definitely ATRT is not an official source of information and has not stopped to look at the origin of the amounts reported by Japan. The Asahi Shinbum newspaper was referring to the fish in Maltese farms and not their capacity. Capacity refers to the maximum possible amount of fish that a farm can take and the fish present at any one time will be different from the capacity figure as it is very difficult that a farm is stocked to full capacity. Also please note that the capacity of a farm is the limitation of what can be put inside it and the Fisheries Division never used that capacity to justify the 11 million tons of tuna reported in the article.
Another mistake of your source of information is the fact that AJD at the St Paul’s Bay site has always had 9 pens and this amount has always been the same. The number of pens inspected and from which fish were harvested were always 9. I can assure you that the days of harvest of AJD are well recorded and that an official observer was present throughout. There was also one occassion when this farm was visited during harvest by inspectors from DG Mare of the EU. All the documentation relating to these harvests is available at the Fisheries Division and has been copied to all relevat authorities within the EU and ICCAT.
There have not been any additions in the last year. What your journalist refers to as an addition of farms is just a situation where farms that do not operate are not reported to ICCAT. The six tuna farms in the South East Aquaculture Zone and the two tuna farms to the North East have been the tuna farms registered with the Fisheries Division since 2006. We do not have any available sites for other developments at present. Although operators may change, the number of farms and the total national capacity of 12,000 tons of tuna will be maintained.
Finally, the comments of your journalist are not justified as the bluefin tuna fishery and farming activities are highly regulated and cross checked at different levels such that any gram of fish can be traced back to origin. The Fisheries Conservation and Control Division together with DG Mare and ICCAT are committed to the regularisation of this sector and have in the past years carried out scruplous monitoring and control to achieve the set goals in the Blue Fin Tuna Recovery Plan.

Dr. Anthony Gruppetta
Director General
Veterinary Regulation, Fisheries Conservation and Control