04th September 2001

Decision on tuna penning should be declared null and void

It is scandalous that there has been no official reaction from the government on the recent Planning Authority decision to allow more tuna pens in an area off St. Paul’s Bay.

The decision to grant permission was taken after the PA Board took a vote to decide whether the applicant had acted illegally. The PA acted beyond its powers when it took a decision on a legal matter, and the vote was totally out of order especially since the PA’s own lawyer had just advised the Board that the applicant had, in fact, acted illegally.

Friends of the Earth (Malta) calls on the Prime Minister to set up a team to investigate the PA’s decision.

There is no doubt that the decision should be reversed because the PA ignored the law; but the government should also take into consideration that fact that the credibility of the PA has been completely undermined.

To add insult to injury the decision will prove to have long term detrimental economic impacts on the economy as the type of ‘farming’ that is being conducted by Azzopardi is unsustainable as it involved catching thousands of small tuna just when these are breeding. This depletes the tuna fish stock, which will mean that the tuna penning business will only have a short life span.

The tuna are fed fish from the wild, further depleting marine stocks and tuna ‘farms’ are also responsible for creating huge volumes of waste and disease that often spreads to other marine life.

It is high time that an environmentalist is appointed to the PA Board so that environment considerations are given a fair hearing.