The fishing industry in Malta : with suggestions for its further development

Abstract

At the request of the Government of Malta I arrived in Valletta on April 17th, 1931, for the purpose of making a rapid survey of the present condition of the coastal fisheries of the islands of Malta and Gozo, with a view to propose measures for their development and, if possible, for their protection against the rapid depletion which it has been alleged is taking place. A month being the time allotted to the enquiry it is obvious that while this is sufficient to permit of certain important generalizations being come to, particularly in regard to the organization of the Department of Fisheries, it is utterly inadequate for the solution of problems requiring a detailed knowledge of the life-histories of the locally important food-fishes: this knowledge does not exist and cannot be available even in outline until several years of carefully organized investigation have been devoted thereto. As a consequence the conclusions and recommendations made in the present report for the regulation of fishing methods must be considered as tentative and provisional: they are founded on the imperfect information at present available and, in the main, rest upon general principles deduced from the experience of localities where the results of systematic fishery investigation are available. [excerpt]