A fish farm operating in Marsaxlokk increased the number of cages from five to 18 without permits, according to the planning authority, which said a court case was holding it back from taking action.

Malta Fish Farming Limited, a subsidiary of construction company Elbros Limited, has been served with an enforcement notice by the planning authority after an inspection revealed it had more than tripled its operations without the necessary permits.

Apart from the expansion, the enforcement notice also refers to a breach of permit conditions because the cages are not located within the designated zone.

The company said it intended to formally contest the enforcement notice according to law and would be submitting detailed reasons to show that the enforcement notice should never have been issued.

Even before any contestation of its recent enforcement notice, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has been bogged down by legal proceedings that rendered it unable to ensure fish farm permit conditions are being observed.

Mepa has in the past had to face similar circumstances.

When Times of Malta asked the planning authority why it would not be taking immediate action to eliminate the breach, it said it was waiting for the outcome of an appeal already filed by the company against it.

Technically, Mepa is empowered to act on this new breach of permit conditions. However, it said it would wait for the outcome of the ongoing appeal before deciding what action to take because “one has a bearing on the other, especially in terms of logistics and expenses”.

Another fish farm located close by, belonging to Fish and Fish Ltd, was also served with an enforcement notice after the cages were found not to be in their permitted location.

The breaches were discovered after Mepa was pressed to conduct an investigation following reports in Times of Malta on pollution – “stinking of fish” – regularly reported by swimmers at il-Kalanka, limits of Delimara.

An aquaculture zone planned for southeast Malta, which would take these cages further out at sea, has still not materialised because of appeals filed jointly by the two companies. The Fisheries Department was granted a permit to establish the zone in 2005 but its implementation was delayed by an appeals process that took seven years.

In the end, the Planning Tribunal dismissed the companies appeal confirming that the aquaculture zone could be established.

However, the two firms filed another appeal in court against Mepa and the department seeking to quash the tribunal’s decision. The case continues.