Slime and foam plaguing the length and breadth of the eastern coast is caused by irregular feeding practices by tuna farm operators, the authorities have finally admitted.
Environment Minister Jose Herrera has acknowledged the fish farming industry is riddled with abuse and promised the authorities will be taking “immediate” action.
Addressing a press conference with parliamentary secretaries Deborah Schembri and Roderick Galdes, the minister said the Planning Authority was ready to issue an emergency enforcement order on operators in breach of their permits.
However, the emergency order, which cannot be appealed, depends on the Environment and Resources Authority’s consent that the slime was “an imminent danger to the environment”.
If they do not conform to the order the PA could tow cages out to sea, release the fish or kill them
Dr Herrera was not in a position to say when the environment authority would make its decision, adding it was “a matter of days” – he kept insisting the authority was autonomous and he had no right to order it to decide.
Environment authority chief executive Reuben Abela, also present for the conference, kept his mouth shut on this particular matter.
Planning Authority chief executive Johann Buttigieg said once the ERA took its decision an emergency enforcement order would give operators a period of time to regularise their position.
“If they do not conform to the order the PA could tow cages out to sea, release the fish or kill them,” he said, when pressed on what course of action would be taken.
He said the authority had asked the Planning Appeals Board to hear with urgency appeals by the operators against enforcement orders it had issued in previous years. He said the request was accepted and the appeals are to be heard in the first week of September.
Dr Herrera said he had taken the bull by the horn soon after his appointment in May and waited for environmental surveys that found the foam and slime were a result of feeding practices by tuna farm operators. Aerial photos of illegal practices were also shown.
Mr Abela, in his only comment during the press conference, said tuna were fed fish unlike other species that were fed pellets. Operators were depositing frozen fish feed in the sea, rather than allowing it to defrost and have it washed down on land.
The defrosting process at sea released oils that when brought inshore because of sea currents, would turn into foam when broken down by wave action against rocks.
Government was also working on new regulations to target fish farm operations – there was currently a legal lacuna – in this sense, which will also impose harsher fines for permit infringements.
Dr Herrera said the industry had grown exponentially along the years and there was little regulation.