Four tuna farms fined 'insignificant' €14,000 for fish slime
It remains unclear how the fines were distributed among the four farms
Four tuna farms have been fined a total of €14,000 for causing the fish slime that plagued Malta’s eastern coastline this summer.
Huge globs of slime were spotted from Mellieħa to Marsascala, with the tuna industry initially refusing to take responsibility.
The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) told Times of Malta it issued eight administrative fines since the beginning of August.
ERA declined to name the tuna farms it had fined, despite repeated questions, and it also remains unclear how the fines were distributed among the four farms.
“Such fines were issued for various breaches of the environmental permit conditions primarily noted during ongoing marine patrols in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by ERA’s compliance and enforcement officers,” ERA said.
The authority did not specify which condition was breached but it previously said that all fish farm operators must have proper measures in place to prevent slime from escaping. They should also have contingency plans to deal with slime should it leak from the cages.
Martin Bugelli, a fisher and former head of the European Commission Representation in Malta, who publicly accused the fish farms of causing the slime, called the fine “insignificant”.
“What this decision means is that we will hopefully no longer be taken for a ride by stupid and absurd excuses as to fantastical sources of this sludge,” Bugelli said.
When oily residue was first spotted in August, fish farm operators – through the Maltese Aquaculture Producers Federation – stopped short of assuming responsibility for the slime, saying that the patches were “not necessarily fish slime”.
Fish farm operators did not admit responsibility even when ERA announced it ordered tuna farms to deploy six cleaning vessels to remove sea slime.
But the source was clearer than ever when Times of Malta visited a tuna farm off St Paul’s Bay, on Bugelli’s boat, and captured workers trying to contain fish slime before it drifted towards the coast.
Bugelli had said that the slime was a result of poor feeding practices as tuna farm operators are throwing the bait feed in open water before draining them of oil.
Following this, the fish farm operators took responsibility, apologised and pledged “more investment” to prevent recurrence.
This issue is not exclusive to this year. In 2016, the authorities were prompted to issue fines and enforcement orders against leading operators after it emerged that many cages were illegal.
Two years later, sea slime reappeared and fish farm operators announced new self-regulation measures, which included having booms to collect the slime and assigning a skimmer-equipped boat to each pen to collect any slime that escapes.
Despite this, sea sludge sightings become a yearly occurrence along Malta’s coast.