Two tuna cages were this afternoon removed from the Comino farm and another one from the St Paul’s Bay farm, the Federation of Maltese Aquaculture Producers said.
It said in a statement other cages would be removed from the other farms in the coming days.
The federation issued a statement in reaction to another issued by Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri earlier today.
The decision was taken after operators warned at a public meeting of the Planning Board that revoking permits for extensions made to their operations could spell the death knell for an industry, which accounts for 1.5 per cent of GDP.
They said that revocation of the permits would cost the industry €150 million.
In her statement, Dr Schembri criticised the Opposition leader saying he lacked the necessary credentials to speak on the environmental sector.
She said this government was enacting legislation to regularise the farms, something that was not done in 25 years of Nationalist governments. She also said that fines for operators had increased.
The Parliamentary Secretary said that while it was the government’s task to draw up policies, these had to be enforced and decided by the Planning Authority. She referred to the PA’s decision saying she was disappointed but it reflected its autonomy from the government.
Dr Busuttil’s reaction to the authority’s decision, she said, showed that he tried to gain political gain out of the situation while at the same time he wanted more dragging of feet.
Dr Busuttil had said that the decision was "fair enough" and the onus was now on the industry to prove that it could meet proper environmental standards. Workers, he said, must surely be relieved.
Dr Schembri said it was also ironic that PN deputy leader Mario de Marco spoke on what should be done when he did not take action as Environment Minister.
In its statement, the Federation said that the plan to place all operators within one small zone created a great risk for the operations, stock and environment.
This was compounded by the fact that although fish farms have been in Malta for around 20 years, there were no regulations or codes of practice encoding and regulating minimum standards that were to be followed and enforced by the industry as yet.
This was despite the fact that the FMAP had been requesting the promulgation of such rules for years, it said, adding “we risk putting the proverbial cart before the horse”.
The federation said operators have made it clear they will be relocating their tuna operations offshore.
“However the sea bream/sea bass farming operations cannot feasibly be relocated offshore since the offshore zone has been specifically and exclusively made for tuna operations.
“We will be finalising our plans with the Planning Authority and other relevant government entities over the coming days."
Operators, the federation said, did not presently have a permit to operate from the South East Aquaculture Zone.
The permit belonged to the Department of Aquaculture which allotted concessions within the zone to operators. Relocation would mean that operators had to be given a license to operate from that zone. But to date, they had no such permit and no such licence.