St Paul's Bay residents this afternoon urged fish farm operators and the locality's local council to assure them that there will not be a repeat of the oily slime that blighted beaches last summer.
The plea was made at a meeting hosted by the local council with operators.
But while Mayor Graziella Galea said the council had no authority to enforce conditions imposed on the operators, Charles Azzopardi from AJD Tuna Limited said his company was doing its utmost to prevent a repeat of the slime trail.
He apologised for the inconvenience caused and said his company had invested in containment booms (temporary floating barriers used to contain an oil spill).
Mr Azzopardi also told this newspaper that AJD Tuna had applied for the relocation of its fish farms off Comino and in St Paul’s Bay to a new site off Qawra.
Fish farm operators had been given until the end of next month to relocate their cages to an aquaculture zone after their permits were revoked by the Planning Authority last year because of environmental harm and illegalities.
The cages will have to be moved to the only aquaculture zone in the south if there is no approved additional aquaculture site by May 31.
However, this southern aquaculture zone has already reached its full capacity.
An application for a new such zone in the north was submitted to the Environment and Resources Authority by the Fisheries Department, but the new zone will not be approved in time.
In the meantime, AJD Tuna applied for the relocation of tuna pens from Comino to a new site off Qawra.
The council has yet to decide on its position about the proposed relocation.
Mayor Galea said last year’s slime situation was unacceptable and there could not be a repeat this year.
Tempers flared at one point during the meeting when a person suggested the total removal of the pens from the area.
Throughout the meeting there were repeated calls for a guarantee – of a monetary nature if possible – that the slime would not return to the area this summer.
St Paul’s Bay resident and activist Nicolai Abela, there should be no relocation until the new aquaculture zone was approved.
Moving the pens from Comino to a new site off St Paul’s Bay would just make the problem worse, he insisted.
“As everyone knows, the slime from St Paul’s Bay last summer drifted along the coast of Salina, Bahar ic-Caghaq and Sliema… moving the pens a bit further out will not make a difference. What’s more, there will be additional pens in the area,” he said.