The world of fish farming

The world of aquaculture, according to Robert Aquilina, a fish farmer from Mistra, is utopian, to say the least - an ideal life where farmed fish do not carry disease or get infested with parasites while the sea below remains limpid and azure. These farms are so well kept that they cause no stress to the marine habitat. There, 900 tonnes or three million fish live a happy stress-free life cooped up in cages until they end up on a supermarket shelf in Europe.

Surely these farms must be managed well to ensure that the health of the fish and of the environment around the farm is kept up to scratch.

Alas we know that we are far from reaching a state that our Greek forefathers dreamed of and we in Malta are even further away of reaching it.

One quick Google search on the web and one can find very interesting reading on the subject . One paper discussed arguments such as location of cages, nitrates, phosphates, eutrophication, diseases, parasites, silt and fodder among other topics. Food for thought I'd say. Another article on the web stated that the effluent, discharged directly and untreated into the sea, from the salmon farms in Scotland, is equivalent to sewage production of a population of nine million humans (WWF). Scotland's population stands at five million at the moment.

How can we allow an industry operating for 14 years, unchecked, in one of Malta's most picturesque bays and, to add insult to injury, using a historical battery built by the knights, as a packing plant? Cavalier is maybe the way the public and tourists are kept from enjoying this building and the surrounding sea.

A total of 40,000 jobs and an industry generating Lm500,000,000 to the Maltese coffers is at stake here.

Cavalier is not relocating the farm to a deeper site with stronger currents so as to dissipate the effluent. In my opinion, one should increase manpower and invest in better technology so as to ameliorate "Malta's balance of payments" while protecting the aquatic life and not just fill the European markets' shelves at any cost. I am sure that Mr Aquilina's foreign bosses can afford to comply just as the fish farmers in Israel are doing so at the moment.

Mr Aquilina should concentrate more on keeping his fish better and refrain from misinforming the public.

I stand by my comments that I made in The Times (August 18) and I am replying to his Opinion (September 2) and his letter (September 10).

The area around St Paul's Island and the reef that juts out to the east were pristine dive sites of immense beauty. Some archaeological artefacts were recovered from here and are displayed in the museums in Valletta.

I do not know of any underwater craters that were formed by WWII bombings. The craters around the farm are natural.

Between the island and the mainland right in the middle of the channel lies HMS Kingston, a WWII destroyer. To the south of the island lie the remains of the Hanini, a former steel yacht. Further south to the yacht was the statue of Kristu il-Bahhar. These three points formed a triangle and a very pleasant dive indeed, contrary to what Mr Aquilina stated.

The reason why the statue was moved to Qawra was due to loss of visibility that divers were experiencing and eutrophication. The 14-letter word that sounds like an EU disease actually describes the state of Kristu, more resembling a Yeti than the handsome figure we were used to visiting underwater. St Paul's reef, one of Malta's best dive sites, is similarly affected.

Many dive centres used these sites regularly. Ours had an agreement with Captain Morgan's Sea Below to dive this site while their passengers were viewing the marine habitat through the glass bottom. This made the sightseer's trip more exciting especially at night as divers swimming in mid-water, using powerful lights, must have looked quite spectacular.

I must admit that even our divers enjoyed these dives more as the Sea Below looked quite eerie, like something out of Mars Attacks. All this was possible when the sea was still clear and one could observe the statue from the surface, even though it was located in 18 metres of water.

Sea Below could not see below any more and moved to shallower waters. We kept on diving notwithstanding, sometimes armed with wire brushes to try and make the statue look a bit more presentable especially to underwater photographers. Eventually many other dive centres and ourselves stopped diving this area as swimming in fish poop was not our idea of fun.

It is in a humorous spirit that I take Mr Aquilina's remark where he insinuates that the reason I could not see the statue anymore is because it has been moved to Qawra. It brings a chuckle to one's heart when one thinks so lightly of an ecological disaster of this magnitude, or does it?

I was instrumental in relocating the statue so I never had, and still have, no problem locating it. It is a shame, though, that the gin clear water in St Paul's Bay is now replaced with pea soup so thick that even the Bismark would not be found had it been placed there.

The patrons of the statue led by Raniero Borg decided to move it to Qawra after consulting with dive centres. It now lies in 35 metres next to the wreck of the Imperial Eagle, Malta's first designated Marine Park.

Fish farms should be monitored regularly by independent authorities and not by the farm itself. If the farms are found to be polluting they should be relocated as was the case in Israel recently. The fish farms there were instructed to move further offshore as the damage to the delicate reefs' eco system was also affecting the diving tourism. I expect that the damage would be compensated for by the polluter. Hopefully, when an independent inspector publishes the result of the testing of the St Paul's Bay area the farms will be moved to a location where the inevitable pollution is minimised and thus be acceptable.

Another of Mr Aquilina's comments was that my business success can be attributed to his farms' presence. Although I tried as hard as my limited capabilities allow me, I still could not find any logic to this statement.

I never stated that the sole culprit to the diving industry's recent lacklustre performance, in Malta, was fish farming. There are other factors affecting the industry negatively but pollution from farms is right on the top of the list. Please refer to the situation in Eilat.Google search Fish Farming Eilat.

I might have commented in the early 1990s that diving near fish farms could be a boost to the diving industry and still think so but only if the sea around is kept clear and the bottom free from silt. Our visitors and the numerous locals come to dive to experience Malta's clear waters not nitrates and phosphates (fish poop).

The photo accompanying Mr Aquilina's letter (September 10) depicts a typical underwater scene showing how a healthy environment should look like, with lush posidonia meadows and an abundance of fish (chromis chromis) on the reef while three divers are enjoying a leisurely stroll. This healthy eco system depicted in the photograph is nowhere near St Paul's Bay but in fact at Cirkewwa.

Eel grass or posidonia does not thrive in murky waters.

The posidonia grass needs clear waters for the light to penetrate through so it can bloom. Try and keep an indoor plant away from light and observe the result. It also provides a natural habitat to the fish where they can hide from predators and lay their eggs. Posidonia also produces oxygen. In other words it is Malta's rain forest.

It is time for Malta to grow up now that we are playing with the big boys. We have to abide by the rules that make our way of life both safer and of better quality.

I have a gut feeling that, like me, many Maltese voted for Malta to join the EU just for these reasons. Let us start acting responsibly and stop polluting mare nostrum.