Ecoserv holds seminars for tuna farm staff

Divers and other staff of three local tuna farms, AJD Tuna Ltd, Fishandfish Ltd and Malta Fishfarming Ltd, attended seminars, organised by Ecoserv Ltd, themed "Aquaculture and the environment".

The seminars, held last month, consisted of lectures and discussions on aspects of environmental monitoring of local tuna penning activities. The main emphasis of the talks was feed management and mitigating measures to prevent adverse impact on the marine environment.

Ecoserv Ltd has been carrying out environmental monitoring of local tuna-penning operations since the start of the activity in 2001.

To date, the results of monitoring of tuna-penning activities have shown that, where present, adverse impacts mainly resulted from accumulation of uneaten feed-fish (namely mackerel) on the seabed below the tuna pens.

However, the results of recent monitoring have shown a large improvement in feed management at most of the tuna farms.

This has resulted in an overall decrease in the amount of accumulated feed-fish on the seabed, which has reflected in improved results obtained from the environmental monitoring.