A fish farm in the south belonging to Malta Fish Farming Ltd added cages without a permit and has been served an enforcement notice by the planning authority.

Another fish farm located close by, belonging to Fish and Fish Ltd, was also found to have had cages not in their permitted location. The company has also been served an enforcement notice.

The breaches in permit conditions were discovered as a result of investigations carried out by the authority with the Fisheries Department. The inspections were carried out after a site visit by Times of Malta to look into pollution in the area showed the farms were too close to shore.

Last August, this newspaper reported greasy, white foam regularly seen in the once pristine bay at il-Kalanka, limits of Delimara. Mepa would not confirm whether the farms were the problem.

The pens belonging to Fish and Fish Ltd should be 800 metres southeast of the nearest headland at Xrobb l-Għaġin, near il-Ħoffriet in Marsaxlokk.

Breaches in permit conditions found after investigations

Malta Fish Farming Ltd pens should be located at 700 metres further offshore from operations covered by the original permit, according to Mepa.

Times of Malta pressed the authority, which is responsible for monitoring fish farm operations, to check whether they were observing their permit conditions, prompting officers recently to conduct an inspection.

An aquaculture zone planned for southeast Malta that would take these cages further out to sea has still not materialised because of appeals against the permit filed jointly by these two companies.

The permit was issued to the Fisheries Department in 2005 but its implementation was delayed by the joint appeal as this was decided by the planning authority’s tribunal seven years later.

In 2012, the tribunal dismissed the companies’ appeal, confirming the permission.

The two firms then filed an appeal in court against Mepa and the fisheries department seeking to quash the tribunal’s decision. The case is still ongoing.

Yet, Malta Fish Farming Ltd (which is a subsidiary of the Maltese construction company Elbros Ltd) and Fish and Fish Ltd (with shares held by a Japanese company and two Maltese partners) have now been confirmed to be in breach of their existing permits.