Aquanaria will remove the cages from Melenara before April 2029, while launching three new operations in Tufia, Arinaga, and Castillo del Romeral with a total capacity of 9,000 tonnes annually.
The aquaculture company Aquanaria has confirmed that it will dismantle the marine farm operating off the beach of Melenara, in Telde, before the administrative concession expires in April 2029. This decision comes as the company promotes three new higher-capacity facilities on the island.
Currently, only ten of the twenty cages installed in Melenara are operational, housing around 400 tonnes of sea bass, half of their annual capacity. These fish were introduced before the contamination episode in October 2025, which caused the death of 2,500 tonnes of sea bass and losses of 30 million euros.
Progressive dismantling of the facilities
Aquanaria's spokesperson, Pedro Sánchez, explained that the company will empty the cages as the sea bass reach commercial size for sale. Once the last batch is removed, the complete dismantling of the twenty floating cages, buoys, ropes, and other infrastructures, both visible and underwater, will proceed. The company has not set a specific date but assures that everything will be ready before the end of the concession in 2029.
For the residents of Melenara, this removal marks the end of a source of environmental controversy. The neighbourhood platform Meclasa and the Telde City Council will join the legal proceedings opened due to the contamination of 2025, which affected 17 beaches in the southeast and south of Gran Canaria and led to their precautionary closure.
Expansion with three macro farms in Gran Canaria
The closure of Melenara does not hinder Aquanaria's growth. The company has obtained concessions to install operations in Tufia (Telde), Arinaga (Agüimes), and expand the one in Castillo del Romeral (San Bartolomé de Tirajana). Each will have a capacity of 3,000 tonnes annually, totalling 9,000 tonnes, far exceeding the 800 produced by Melenara.
Aquanaria claims that the expansion has allowed it to maintain its entire workforce despite the losses of 2025. The company attributes the massive mortality to a discharge of chemicals from the submarine outfall of the Silva treatment plant, a thesis it maintains in the complaint to Seprona and the Environmental Prosecutor's Office.
The judicial investigation, opened in the courts of Telde, continues. The Prosecutor's Office has ordered samples to be taken at the treatment plant and has commissioned an expert report from the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Canary Islands to determine whether the discharges constitute a crime against natural resources. The report is still being prepared, nearly a year after the incident.
For the residents of Telde, the closure of Melenara is a relief, but uncertainty about the new farms generates debate. Meanwhile, Aquanaria expects the complete dismantling to finish before 2029, with no specific date for the start of the work.
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