A fish farm that breeds sea bream (awrat) in the north of Malta has been left licking its wounds after suffering its third major storm in the past eight years.

Robert Aquilina, CEO of Pisciculture Marine De Malte Ltd, told WhosWho.mt that while the fish farm is still assessing the damage, the impact of Storm Harry appears similar to that of Storm Helios in 2023.

Since the fish farm, which has 20 cages in St Paul’s Bay and Mellieħa and a nursery in Mistra, is exposed to the east and northeast, it was worst hit by the 2019 Grigalata.

The storm damaged some of the nylon nets suspended around the cages, allowing some sea bream to escape into the open sea. Some were caught by fishermen who correctly anticipated an awrat deluge along the coast.

Pisciculture Marine De Malte CEO Robert Aquilina

Mr Aquilina said that because the nets are small – as sea bream are relatively small fish, typically harvested at 400–450g – they are particularly vulnerable to the impact of strong waves.

However, he said it is not yet possible to estimate how many fish actually escaped through storm-caused tears in the netting.

“It’s still early days. We know how many fish we placed in the cages but they take around 16 months to grow and we’ll only know how many are missing when we empty the cages.”

He said that the week after Storm Harry has been particularly busy, with divers deployed to fix nets around the cages to secure the livestock that didn’t escape.

“We’re a farm, and just like land-based farmers, we’re exposed to the elements too,” Mr Aquilina added.