The farm, owned by Fish and Fish Ltd, lies approximately 800m southeast of the nearest headland at Xrobb l-Ghagin in Marsaxlokk. The Authority had ordered the farm owners to relocate their pens further out, in 2001, after surveys of the area indicated that the farms were having a negative effect on a colony of protected algae just beneath them.

The farm presently has four pens holding 350 tonnes of tuna, and another eight sea bass/bream (awrat) cages, penning a maximum of 150 tonnes. The tuna pens have a diameter of 50m and are 20m deep while the square-shaped sea bass/bream pens have 16m sides and are 12m deep.

The approved extension will see the addition of another four tuna pens of the same dimensions as the existing ones, while the sea bass/bream pens will be changed with eight 20m diameter, 12m deep cages, increasing the maximum capacity of sea bass farming to 300 tonnes. However the actual farming may be capped up to 230 tonnes due to a Department of Fisheries directive.

The go-ahead was given pending a number of conditions, one of which is that the introduction of the new pens has to be phased into a three-year schedule.

Following the issue of the development permission, only the eight tuna cages can be deployed. After a year-long monitoring of the zone and a favourable report by the planning directorate, the company will then be allowed to add another four sea bass/bream cages. The remaining four cages will only be given clearance following another year of monitoring of the area.

An Environmental Impact Assessment was commissioned, specifically for the extension, as another EIA had been carried out when the original application was made. It seems that the sea bass/bream farming creates more cause for concern, in terms of potential damage to the environment. The tuna are fed frozen fish, while the sea bass are usually given palettes that seem to pollute the waters much more than the tuna feeding does.

Another condition placed on the approval of the extension was that the farm would have to conform to new regulations, outlined by the National Aquacultural Policy, on which Mepa is working. This could include the relocation of the entire operations to a single area with the rest of the local fish farms. The proposal is still being studied; the area earmarked is, however, not too distant from the Fish and Fish Ltd farms a few miles off Marsaxlokk.

The Marsaxlokk local council was one of the organisations that objected to the extension. The council complained that the area proposed for the extension was used by local fishermen and that therefore the extension would further limit the fishing potential of the zone. The Malta Tourism Authority also objected to the extension on the grounds that no more permits for new fish farms or extensions should be issued until the national aquacultural plan was finalised.