At present, Mediterranean farming of the amberjack and the bluefin tuna are capture-based; with the fish being caught from the wild and reared in cages or pens, writes Robert Vassallo Agius of The Malta Independent.
According to the news organisation, The Amberjack Project is a national project and started in 2006. It involves the collaboration between the government pilot research hatchery at Fort San Lucjan and a local private fish farm, Malta Fishfarming Ltd.
The project is in the fourth year of a five-year joint venture, aimed towards the development of breeding techniques and the culture of this species. In these last four years, Malta has already developed techniques whereby fertilised eggs are collected, hatched and reared into juveniles that are then grown into adults in cages, says The Malta Independent.
The production of fertilised eggs has increased from 300,000 in 2006 to approximately 10 million eggs this year. With the present capacity of the pilot hatchery at Fort San Lucjan we can only produce a maximum of 10,000 juveniles through the current survival rates.
Malta Research Amberjack Production
MALTA - The Aquaculture research Section at Fort San Lucjan participates actively in research projects to breed marine fish species that have a high potential for aquaculture, namely the amberjack (accjol).
