Tuna pen operators announce self-regulation measures as minister sounds warning

The sea slime that has appeared on vast stretches of Maltese coasts is coming from fish farms, Environment Minister Jose Herrera confirmed yesterday, when speaking to The Malta Independent.

His comments came as four of five tuna farm operators announced new self-regulation measures to make sure that a repetition of 2016, when Maltese beaches were regularly covered in slime, does not happen. Over the past days, multiple images have been shared on social media by swimmers and environmentalists who have come face to face with the sludge.

Reports have been received of the slime being present across various shorelines, ranging from Marsascala to Kalkara and further up to Sliema and Pembroke.

Asked by this newsroom about these reports, Herrera said that he was worried about them and that from preliminary comments that he had received from experts, he was sure that the slime is coming from fish farms in Maltese waters.

Herrera said the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) and the Fisheries department were out at sea with their own vessels yesterday, conducting comprehensive inspections to determine what, if any, regulations had been broken. The Minister said he was expecting a report on his desk in the coming hours, from which point the ministry will take all the required action against any fish farm operators who are found to have broken the conditions set by the ministry.

When the policy that stipulated that fish farms had to be moved further away from the shoreline was put into being, Herrera said, he knew that there could still be a certain amount of slime drifting inwards, but he wanted to mitigate this as much as possible. To exclude this possibility entirely, Herrera explained, one must stop the industry entirely, and such a thing would be against the policy that the government is undertaking. The decision to try mitigating the slime as much as possible is one that was supported by both sides of the House, Herrera added.

Herrera described it as “intolerable” that an operator is given the license to work but ignores the stipulated working conditions. In this respect, Herrera pledged that if an operator has failed to follow the conditions of work; then the operator “must answer for those failures”.

The situation surrounding sea slime is one that has reared its ugly head before. In 2016 slime from fish farms polluted the coastline stretching from Marsascala to St. Paul’s Bay, an incident which was blamed on new, fattier feed for the tuna in the farms. Herrera had proposed new regulations that saw fish farms move further away from Maltese shores.

Four out of five fish farm operators reach agreement for cleaner seas

The Maltese Federation for Aquacultural Products yesterday announced that it had reached an agreement with four out of the five fish farm operators to regularise their procedures between August and the end of October so to have cleaner seas for all.

The federation said that it had reached this agreement after noting people’s complaints and the challenge that the government has to keep a general balance between the industry and the public.

The agreement makes several considerations that the operators must follow and adopt to make sure that the environment around them is treated well and with full respect.

The stipulations include that each operator has to place booms around each cage to stop any oils that emerge from the feed used for the fish; that each operator should have a boat dedicated to going round the cages and picking up any waste that is generated; that the feed should be transported and processed in accordance with the best environmental practices and that there should be an independent person appointed by the federation to assess and report on the practices that the signatory operators are utilising.

Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that two vessels should patrol the coast to pick up any waste thrown into the sea, including plastics and other materials that damage the Malta’s eco-system.

The agreement also committed that a call centre that operates seven days a week be founded. The scope of this call centre is to receive any complaints from people about any inconvenience that they may come face to face with in the sea.

The operators who have signed on to this agreement are AJD Tuna Limited, Fish and Fish Limited, Malta Mariculture Limited and MFF Limited.

Mare Blue Tuna Farm Limited, a subsidiary of a Spanish company, is the only tuna pen operator that has not signed the agreement, but industry sources said efforts were being made to bring it on board.