Fish farms

Recent revelations, or indeed admissions by fish farm owners that slicks of foul smelling toxic slime polluting large stretches of Malta’s once clear waters surrounding the islands are in fact emanating from fish farming operations, comes as no surprise to the many vociferous critics of these seemingly unregulated operations in Malta. What should be surprising to all Maltese nationals as stakeholders in this precious natural resource, a vital element in a tourist-based economy, is that the revelations or admissions were finally made by the owner operator and did not come from the enforcement agency which is charged by its own government to be the watchdog of the environment in Malta. That responsibility clearly lies with the Ministry for Environment and Climate Change under the leadership of the Minister with no action Dr Jose Herrera.

Report after report of plumes of slime and other heavy contaminants from fish farms over a significant period of time but absolutely nothing was heard from the Minister. The Times of Malta alone reported incidents of heavy pollution from fish farms in 2014, 2015 and several times already this year. In a report published by the Times of Malta in 2014, the Ministry apparently was unable to provide the exact coordinates for locating operating fish farms; in short the regulator had no idea of where the operations it was charged to regulate were precisely located. Mindboggling even for Malta where enforcement is considered to be a dirty word.

In another report published in July, it was revealed that one particular farming operation had expanded four times its regulated approved size (ToM, 31 July and other sources) with no corresponding action taken by the Ministry. No rebuttal or response to such a serious allegation from the Minister. With enforcement levels in this sector at a new record low and zero operational policing, the industry has gone feral amid widespread and increasingly serious abuses of our marine environment without restraint. The public must wonder why the Minister is clearly protecting these big money vested interests despite the obvious breaches of lawful regulatory controls; the public can reach its own, what some may argue, obvious conclusions. This Minister has clearly abandoned his post and is now minister without purpose. The Prime Minister should dismiss him instantly in the national interest and indeed in the interests of his own government.

Subsequent to the latest pollution episode, the Minister eventually responded with some motherhood statement about the environment while singing the praises of the importance of the fish farming industry in Malta. He also announced some halfhearted investigation, which no doubt will lead to more coverups of these serious transgressions with absolutely no resulting action. These are the simple unarguable facts which even a nonfunctioning minister might be capable of grasping.

Malta is a highly successful tourist-based economy. It is widely accepted with good anecdotal evidence that the tourist industry can be very fickle and easily affected by environmental and security issues. Fish farming is an intensive Eco invasive operation which inflicts significant, visible and considerable harm on the once pristine waters around Malta; therefore these operations, most particularly inside protective bays are incompatible with an economy based on tourism attracted by, among other things, our unpolluted waters. That is incontestable. So contrary to the minister’s statements, fish farming generally is a medium- to long-term threat to Malta’s mainstay of the economy and not just an economic supplement which must be defended at all times regardless of the serious risks it represents.

Scientific studies have likened fish farming operations to intensive pig or poultry farming, literally responsible for thousands of tons of polluting by-product concoctions loaded with antibiotics steroids and other mind-numbing nasties. Heavy accumulations and combinations of uneaten feed laced with chemicals and a massive efflux of effluent from heavy concentrations of fish penned in the same restricted area is wreaking havoc on our marine ecology, our marine life and seabed flora. While fish farming is not a massive employer it does provide some employment in Malta but still cannot be even remotely compared to the hospitality sector, which obviously depends a great deal on Malta’s natural and reasonably unpolluted marine assets now becoming increasingly threatened and facing rising levels of different pressures.

Aquaculture in Malta is generally referenced under the dual headings of Tuna Farming and farming of other smaller species. According to the published “General Review of Bluefin Tuna farming in the Mediterranean”, Malta is particularly identified as being the most strategic location of all of the Tuna farming operations in the Mediterranean in terms of the migratory path of the Bluefin tuna. It can therefore be reasonably argued that the Bluefin purse seine tuna operation has directly impacted on what used to be a strong and thriving local traditional tuna fishing community resulting in few if any traditional tuna fishermen left, given the dwindling nature of the species and the now capital intensive state of the industry.

As wild stocks of Atlantic Blue Fin tuna continue to decline and are now on the cusp of collapsing beyond recovery, an entire species is at risk of extinction from over exploitation. These risks are recognised and monitored by various international environmental bodies like ICCAT, WWF (Tuna), CCSBT and others. But despite the fact the industry is providentially monitored by authorities other than those in Malta, it seems the true to form Maltese operators are still finding ways of rorting the system in the absence of complete lack of interest or worse by Maltese regulators.

In answer to published claims that Malta since 2002 has declared two non-existent tuna farms (presumably with an eye for future additional permitted catch quotas) among its registered eight ranches, Fisheries Director Anthony Grupetta actually provided incorrect or misleading responses to all of the material points made in that report by Raphael Vassallo. That response by the Director with corrective editorial comment was also published but still no comment made or action taken by the Minister. That’s the extent of enforcement in Malta. Less than zero. A. Trevisan