The Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU, the Marsascala Business Community and the Ghaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd yesterday expressed themselves against the granting of more fish farming licences as well as grouping current fish farms into one area.

They are, however, in favour of pushing the farms further out from the coast as well as to the introduction of more stringent regulations, the three organisations said at a joint press conference in Marsascala.

The government has submitted an application to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority for an aquaculture zone south east of the island where fish farms would be relocated and new ones set up.

A spokesman for the Environment Ministry said yesterday that an environment impact statement about the application should be concluded soon. This would be followed by a public consultation period during which everyone would be able to give their views.

The spokesman said the government would take into account considerations made in the EIS and if it decided to go ahead with the application this could be rejected.

If the application was approved the government would first relocate the existing farms, then calculate the remainder of the area and invite expressions of interest for the setting up of other farms.

The spokesman said interest had already been expressed to the Fisheries Department by both Maltese and foreigners including Spanish fish farming giant Ricardo Fuentes. This firm, he said, had fish farms all over the world, denying that the Spanish company wanted to set up here what other Mediterranean countries had refused.

Reuben Buttigieg, from the MBC, said the site the government was proposing as a fish-farming zone was intended to house a maximum of concessions with the maximum biomass the zone could handle. The zone would cater for 5,000 tonnes of fish.

Mr Buttigieg said a total of 20 tonnes of wild fish were required to fatten up one tonne of tuna for the market. On average each tuna produces two kilos of excreta per day.

The proposal was for 50- and 90 -metre cages, with the 50-metre cage having a capacity for 55 to 60 tonnes and the 90-metre cage, a capacity of 220 to 230 tonnes of tuna.

According to a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature, a decision by Spain to create an aquaculture polygon resulted in the approval of new tuna farms instead of the relocation of existing ones, as had been the original purpose of the measure.

Pollution from fish farms was the most perceived impact but there were also further concerns such as an adverse landscape effect. There were also effects that could be less obvious to the public such as chemical dispersion and the interaction with wild fish stocks, birds and marine creatures.

Intensive aquaculture would lead to a wide use of chemicals, including hormones and stimulants, antimicrobials, disinfectants and fungicides among others.

Moreover, the level of fish farming in Malta was already intensive.

The MBC believed tourism would be negatively affected if such a project were approved. In fact, even the Malta Tourism Authority had asked Mepa not to issue any more permits for aquaculture development until more information on their impact was available.

Mr Buttigieg said certain professional diving schools claimed that the proposed project would further damage the dive sites in the area.

While fish farms in other countries were being rejected, he said, it seemed Malta wanted a high concentration of them in one specific area.

GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said that the coast on the southern side of the island was as important as that in the north and it would be a big economic mistake to differentiate by transferring an activity, which was having a negative impact, to one area.

Clustering would be detrimental for tourism, which should be encouraged to continue to expand to two million tourists. But this figure would never be reached if the south of the island was abandoned.

He said there were three active farms in Malta and the last licence granted was available on the market for Lm500,000 when this would have cost a maximum of Lm100,000 to obtain.

Mr Farrugia pointed out that while Spain, Tunisia and Sicily were restricting their fish farming industry because of the impact and environmental damage, Malta wanted to expand it.

Carmelo Bugeja from Ghaqda Koperattiva tas-Sajd, said that if fish farms were clustered, the site known as is-Sikka tan-Nofs which is a good breeding ground for fish would be destroyed.

Mr Bugeja said that it was Fuentes' intention to get permission from Libya to fish within the zone it recently declared a preservation area and the company wanted to set up a fish farm in Malta to be close to this zone.

Sources close to the fish farming industry said when contacted yesterday they would be faced with insurance problems were they to take their farms further out at sea.

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