The cracks on the shore are filled with a dark sludge. Photos: Jason Borg

A slew of greasy, white foam that carries an unbearable stench continues to blight the once pristine bay at il-Kalanka, limits of Delimara, despite a government investigation into the problem five years ago.

Pollution drifts into the bay and when the sea is rough and waves crash against the shore, it leaves a residue of slime and foamy patches on the rocks.

The cracks are filled with a dark sludge that seems to be an accumulation of this residue, which the authorities could not confirm even though the problem has persisted for years.

Mario Cassar, 63, is frustrated this has never been solved. He is a regular visitor to the area as his father used to take him swimming there as a child.

He said his many appeals to different authorities had fallen on deaf ears.

It’s sticky when you step on it and it kills species like crabs

“When the sea is calm, the pollution spreads across the surface of the sea all the way to Marsaxlokk. When it’s rough, and the sea comes on to the shore, the rocks are covered with slime.

“It’s sticky when you step on it and it kills the species, like crabs, that are unable to pull themselves away from it,” Mr Cassar said.

He said the sea always stank and that he regularly heard swimmers complaining about not being able to get the smell out of their hair.

Mr Cassar often goes diving. “The sea beneath the [fish] farms is a desert inhabited only by a kind of slug. I noticed because once I was diving and I lost my spear as I targeted a fish hovering above what I thought were rocks. I only realised when the slugs started to move.”

The Fisheries Secretariat could not state the source of the pollution. Asked what action it planned to take to stem the problem, it said the government was committed to implementing the national aquaculture strategy published earlier this month.

“This document provides the framework in which this sector is to be governed and, at the same time, is expected to operate and has improved regulation and management as a cross-cutting underlying objective,” a spokesman said.

Fisheries Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes launched the strategy, covering 2014 to 2025, earlier this month saying the focus was on the sector’s growth.

When pressed about what immediate action was planned for il-Kalanka, the secretariat said it would be looking into the problem with Mepa, which is responsible for monitoring.

The aquaculture strategy proposes giving the Fisheries Department responsibility for the sector to enforce the conditions imposed by Mepa. The farms in the area are operated by Malta Fish Farming Limited (a subsidiary of the Maltese construction company Elbros Ltd) and Fish and Fish Ltd (an Italian investment).

Further out, another farm, owned by Mare Blu, operates from the southeast aquaculture zone, according to the 2012 draft aquaculture strategy.

In 2009, Resources Ministry officials had been dispatched to il-Kalanka to investigate the white foam drifting into the bay following media reports.

That same year, environmental organisation Nature Trust had appealed to the government to keep to its word and continue moving the existing tuna farms further out to sea.