Tuna farm in Maltese waters. (Photo: AJD Tuna)

Fish farmers file appeal cage permit revocation

MALTA
Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 01:40 (GMT + 9)

Two fish farms have filed appeals intended to overturn the Planning Authority's (PA) decision to revoke cage permits.

The two farms, AJD Tuna and Malta Mariculture, took this decision after the PA's order to move four of their cages further offshore by the end of the year.

Three of the affected cages belong to AJD Tuna, with the remaining one belonging to its fully-owned subsidiary company, Malta Mariculture.

Referring to the issue, AJD Tuna director Charles Azzopardi said that both companies had removed cages held under revoked permits.

"The Malta Mariculture cage [off Comino] was removed right after the PA announced its decision [on September 22], while the AJD Tuna cages were all gone by October 16," he told Times of Malta.

Those affected by the PA’s intiative stated that fish farms were in the public eye throughout summer, as bathers complained of increasingly regular incidents of oily slime drifting towards the shore.

In their view, the public outcry prompted the government, and then the PA, to step in.

On September 22, the PA had announced that it would be revoking 10 permits belonging to four separate fish farm operators. That decision came after operators had requested - and received a two-week deadline extension to allow them to prepare management plans outlining how they intended to move cages further offshore and rectify any environmental shortcomings.

Although the PA told operators that their permits were being revoked, it also allowed them to remove cages according to their own proposed management plans - provided offending cages were all gone by the end of the year.

Two weeks later, on October 7, Times of Malta revealed that two of the four operators were still not adhering to the time frames and plans they had set themselves.

This was confirmed by the PA the following day, with the Authority also noting that the remaining two operators - Malta Mariculture being one of them - were "fully compliant".

Meanwhile, the EC considers enforcement against slime, sludge in Malta’s sea water as national issue.

While saying that the Commission will examine measures proposed by the Maltese authorities to achieve or maintain good environmental status in their marine waters by 2020 once they are received, EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella added that based on available information, the Commission considers this (the sludge and slime) to be an enforcement issue for the responsible national authority.

In the environmentalist’s opinion, environmental sustainability is one of the main issues that needs to be discussed between member states during Malta’s presidency, and this needs to be something Malta pushes for.

Related articles:

- Govt. postpones decision on tuna farm permit revocation
- Polluting tuna farms forced to urgently tackle illegalities
- Aquaculture centre slime issue solution to take time, Govt. admits

 
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