The Killifish Conservation Project.
This collaborative project brings together MAFA, Nature Trust Malta, and the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) to save the endangered Maltese populations of Mediterranean killifish, known locally as “Bużaqq” (Aphanius fasciatus).
The project has four key goals:
- Raise awareness and educate the public: The project aims to educate the public about the importance of conserving the Bużaqq, Malta’s National fish and its habitat.
- Sustainable management of il-Magħluq tal-baħar: Effective and sustainable practices to manage this Natura 2000 site in Marsascala, where a vulnerable population is present.
- Secure a viable captive population: A healthy population of Bużaqq will be established in captivity to ensure the species’ survival.
- Captive breeding for genetic preservation: Controlled breeding programs will be conducted within the captive population to safeguard the genetic diversity of the Maltese Aphanius fasciatus.
The project was launched in 2014 with 10 pairs collected from Il-Maghluq ta’ Marsascala. Later another 80 individuals were collected under an emergency permit from ERA to ensure a species maintence stock in case of mass mortality events at Salina due to long heat waves.
The KCP, which was sponsored by Bank of Valletta plc. proved to be a success and by early summer 2019 the total number of killifish from Marsascala at San Lucjan was over 600 with the first release carried out in September 2019.
Other ongoing tasks for the Killifish Conservation Project are:
- Its involvement in the management of the population at il-Maghluq ta’ Marsascala and improvement of the habitat conditions of the site.
- Monitor and manage the il-Maghluq ta’ Marsascala population prior, during and after dredging works at the site.
- Continue with the maintenance of healthy captive populations of killifish from every known type locality in Malta, namely l-Ghadira, Is-Simar and Is-Salini.
- Monitor the population dynamics of every known population of killifish in Malta.
- Translocate a starting population from Il-Maghluq ta’ Marsascala to il-Ballut ta’ Marsaxlokk after this is restored and made suitable to support Aphanius fasciatus again.
