AG Mazuz rejects PMO petition to delay removal of Eilat fish cages
Gov't decision 2 years ago ordered all cages removed due to pollution; PMO: Farmers need more time to find land-based alternatives.
By Zafrir Rinat Tags: Menachem Mazuz EilatAttorney General Menachem Mazuz announced Sunday he rejects an additional request from the Prime Minister's Office to put off the removal of fish cages from the Eilat Gulf by two years, despite a cabinet decision two years ago stating that they must go within three years.
Mazuz ruled that the decision to gradually remove all the cages by 2008 must be implemented. The decision ordered the amount of food provided for fish in the cages in the gulf to be reduced by a third every year. Up to now, however, this has only been partially enacted.
One of the reasons prompting the government decision two years ago was the pollution resulting from the fish cages, which threatens the bay's coral reef.
Prime Minister's Office Director General Ra'anan Dinur, head of the committee for implementing the cabinet's decision to remove the cages, had recently told Mazuz that the fish farmers needed more time to get organized, and that removing the cages sooner would leave them without a living.
Dinur said the farmers required a delay in order to develop land-based alternatives for the fishing, a project which his committee is charged to assist them in. He has also appealed to Mazuz in the past with a similar request.
Mazuz emphasized in his response to Dinur that the mariculture companies which own the cages worked in an illegal manner, and were convicted over violations for illegal construction. The court rulings on these offences ordered the companies to implement the government decision to remove the cages, and determined that an extension could only be granted if it had the Attorney General's approval.
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you guys have said exactly what i wanted to say ....lets wait a while and see what is built there instead ....follow the money
The problem is not the sea cages ,but the thousands of learner divers comming to Eilat each year(thousands of $$$$$$$$$$ for the goverment),and the loading (open)of phosphates up-wind from the reefs ($$$$$$$$ for the gov.),the accasional spillage of raw sewrage from Eilat into the sea.Let the farmers make a clean living from the sea.
There is no proof of environmental damage from the fish cages, actually to the contrary they have developed a healthy growth of corals and fish directly below the cages. The damage to the coral has come from warming water, over diving, SAND from HOTEL beaches and years of dumping sewage into the sea which periodically get churned up. Follow the money, The so called greens in this case have motives that have nothing to do with ecology.
The reasons for procrastination by the sea-cage farmers are ludicrous. Not only have they had ample time to devise land-based alternatives, but fish-farming in artificial pools, both fresh-water and sea-water, has long been established in Israel, and preceded the sea-cage idea, which is ruining the unique Eilat coral reefs.