The Planning Authority has dismissed a request by AJD Tuna to waive a €30,000 fee which was imposed for the relocation of its fish farms.

The fee, a planning gain meant to compensate for environmental impacts, was imposed last October when the PA granted the subsidiary company, Malta Mariculture Limited, permission to relocate eight tuna cages from St Paul’s Bay to Sikka l-Bajda, some five kilometres north of Qawra Point.

The site is just 800 metres away from a second farm operated by parent company AJD Tuna, part of the Azzopardi Group, which was relocated from Comino a few months earlier.

The permit was intended as a temporary, two-year measure until the approval of an official aquaculture zone on the same site.

During a PA board hearing today, the operators’ architects argued that the €30,000 planning gain should be dismissed as the permit granted for the AJD Tuna farm nearby contained no such condition.

They also argued that the company had carried out studies at its own expense which had determined that the chosen site would have the least possible environmental impacts, and that the relocation had been ordered by the PA, specifically for environmental reasons.

The board, however, rejected the request and confirmed the planning gain near-unanimously, with just a single vote in favour of dismissing the fee.

Matthew Pace, the only member to vote in favour, said it made no sense to impose such a fee at this stage, when a permanent application had yet to be presented.

Environment and Resources Authority chairman Victor Axiak insisted the fee was justified due to the cumulative impact of two fish farms in such close proximity, noting concerns over the effect on a massive colony of Yelkouan Shearwaters.

The Sikka l-Bajda site is located within two Natura 2000 sites, designated as a marine Special Protection Area for seabirds, and a marine Special Area of Conservation under the Habitats Directive.

Opposition representative Ryan Callus added that the planning gain was “owed” to St Paul’s Bay residents, who had borne the brunt of the farms’ harmful environmental effects for years.

The offshore relocation followed the PA’s decision to revoke all tuna farm permits and order operators to shift their cages to approved aquaculture zones, after the farms were identified as the source of oily slime which plagued beaches and coastal areas.