The census was undertaken to obtain structural and economic information on the fisheries sector in Malta. According to the National Statistics Office nearly 1421 commercial fishing vessels were registered. Out of which 1092 fishing vessels were active while 329 were inactive. It is also found that 42.0 per cent of the active fishing fleet is Multi-purpose vessels (MPV’s), while 34.4 per cent is the kajjik.
The census shows the majority of the active fishing vessels operate with an MFB license (68.3 per cent) while MFA licensed fishing vessels account for 31.7 per cent of all active fishing vessels. Fish catch largely depends on the type of licence and the type of vessel. It is reported that the MFA licenced vessels landed 87.2 percent of all landings while MFB licenced vessels landed 12.8 percent of the total catch in Malta.
The aquaculture and tuna framings also show remarkable results. The growing fisheries increase the employment opportunities in Malta, which means good fishing economy. According to the available data the Gross Fisheries Production in 2005 amounted to Lm25.7m. Open sea fishing and fish farming accounted for 97.5 percent of all output while contractual services accounted for 2.5 percent of the total output of the fisheries sector.
