January 31, 2007

Turkey's fish farms face new environmental regulations for fish farms

Turkey's Ministry of Environment and Forestry decided to impose new regulations on fish farms near the Aegean coast to solve the problem of smells emanating from the farms.

The stench has drawn repeated demonstrations by environmental activists, touched off parliamentary hearings and led to complaints from the tourism sector. However, these new regulations not only failed to appease environmental activists but are also angering the fish farm owners.

According to the new regulations, for a fish farm to be established in an area fish farms would have to be at least 1,100 metres from the coast and that the depth of the abyssal plain must be 30 metres with a stream speed of no less than 0.1 metre/second. The regulations also state that fish farms must prove they are outside of areas deemed risky for sea pollution, such as sheltered bays.

All fish farms would have to prove their compliance by May 1, 2007. Reports about their conditions are to be prepared by universities or by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). Annual reports are also to be submitted to prove they are no threat to the environment.

Despite the new regulations, not even the state ministries can agree on the impact of the  fish farms.

According to The Ministry of Agriculture, the roughly 300 fish farms along the coasts of Turkey create no pollution whatsoever. Last year, the Minister of Agriculture testified in a parliamentary hearing saying that since fish farms created only organic waste, they were not harmful to the environment.

However, Environment Minister Osman Pepe said last Tuesday that fish farms in closed bays were causing both serious undersea and local pollution.