Sea cleaning efforts will intensify around eastern Malta – Aquaculture Federation CEO on slime prevention

Sea-cleaning efforts will once again be intensified around the eastern shores of Malta during the summer months, from the 15th of July to the third week of September, CEO of the The Federation of Aquaculture Producers Charlon Gouder says.

He said that these efforts will build on the experience and results achieved in previous campaigns.

Every summer, fish farms come under the spotlight as complaints arise over the presence of sea slime off of Malta’s coast in areas where they operate. St Paul’s Bay is one of the localities where complaints of sea slime arose in the past. Dr Gouder on behalf of the federation, held a meeting with the St Pauls’ Bay Mayor, Ċensu Galea, and ADPD Leader Sandra Gauci, who is a local councillor in the locality, on Tuesday to inform the council about its plans for the season ahead.

The federation wants to ensure that its fish farm activity creates as minimal an inconvenience as possible, Dr Gouder told businessnow.mt.

Last year’s cleaning initiative “led to the collection of approximately 14 tonnes of slime and 19 tonnes of other waste from the sea, demonstrating both the scale of the challenge and the value of a coordinated response. This year’s campaign will continue to focus on regular monitoring, targeted clean-up interventions, and the mobilisation of the necessary vessels and personnel to remove floating debris and other material that may affect bathing areas, navigation, aquaculture operations, and the wider marine environment.”

Regarding the meeting with the Council, Dr Gouder says: “We explained to them what we are after and what targets we want to achieve. In principle we want to ensure that our activity would preferably not create disturbance, but if there is any inconvenience, that it be kept to as minimal a level as possible.”

“As an industry, invest a lot in our corporate social responsibility campaign, where have daily patrols, which will increase, across the islands during the fish-feeding months to ensure that any ongoing inconvenience at sea, such as flotsome, slime or any other things, are caught early.”

St Paul’s Bay Mayor Ċensu Galea told this newsroom that it was the federation that asked for the meeting, and he says that both the discussion, and the federation’s attitude, were positive, but that “the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.”

He adds that the federation will inform the council when feeding of fish in the pens begins this summer, and that they will also inform them about collection of material at sea, including material which would not have originated from the fish farms. The federation informed him that the number of patrols will also increase, he says.

“From our side of things, what is important is that we avoid, as much as possible, the presence of sea slime,” he said.

Ms Gauci said on social media that she was satisfied with the proposals put forward by Charlon Gouder, “who showed a willingness to reduce or eliminate the inconvenience caused by the slime. Now we will see how everything will be implemented in practice.”

Cover image: From Left: Charlon Gouder, Ċensu Galea, Sandra Gauci and Tristan Camilleri from the Federation.