TASMANIAN SALMON INDUSTRY
Bid for huon aquaculture
JBS has bought Huon Aquaculture, Australia’s second-biggest salmon farmer, which is based here on Tasmania’s south coast.
Click on the link below to read an article published in the ‘Guardian’ about the Batista brothers of JBS…
Meet the Batistas: the global beef barons battling for control of Australia’s meat
REFUTING THE SALMON INDUSTRY’S CLAIMS
The salmon industry recently placed a full-page advert in the Mercury newspaper.
We refuted their claims!
Our advert told The Truth and was placed in the Mercury as our own full-page advert.
Thanks to everyone who donated to help us fund this!
Salmon is not as healthy to eat as the industry corporations would have you believe…
From 7NEWS Australia 28/04/2021
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
of Open Ocean Aquaculture
This is the situation in 2021…and it gets WORSE
The Tasmanian government and the salmon farming corporations are planning to DOUBLE the industry
WHO MAKES THE MOST $$? WHO BENEFITS MOST? WHO LOSES OUT?
Tasmania and its precious water is being mortgaged to ‘Big Salmon’
WORKING FOR SALMON FARMS ISN’T AS ‘BIG’ AS THEY PORTRAY…
‘Big Salmon’ likes to spruik it’s employment credentials. Actually, they aren't that ‘big’ - ranked 16th in 2016. Automation will further reduce employment opportunities
Resignations of 2 key scientists from the Tasmania’s Marine Farming Planning Review Panel in 2018
In August 2018, two prominent scientist members resigned in protest from Tasmania’s Marine Farming Planning Review Panel (MFPRP), only weeks before the green light was given for a massive salmon expansion into Storm Bay. The two scientists resigned from the panel because they were unable to "apply current best practice and the lessons from Macquarie Harbour".
The scientists wrote to the minister at the time, stating that they were hindered by the legislation governing the panel, the absence of base information, and "the functioning of the panel that showed an undue propensity to support what is operationally convenient for the aquaculture industry."
In 2018, the salmon industry produced 50,000 tonnes p/a from 14 marine farm plans around the state, according to the Tasmanian Government’s Salmon Growth Plan (Big Salmon Plan).
LEARNING FROM THE MACQUARIE HARBOUR DISASTER
Over 1,350,000 Salmon died in Macquarie Harbour due to Government’s broken regulatory and compliance system. The stocking limit in Macquarie Harbour peaked at 26,500 tonnes in 2016. The stocking density should never have been allowed to grow so high. It is now back to the 2015 level of 9,500 tonnes. This stocking density reflects the biomass that can survive in the harbour (rather than any concern for rehabilitation) and that areas under the pens resemble an underwater industrial wasteland, devoid of aquatic life. This kind of management of a public waterway represents world’s worst practise and Tasmanians are rightly concerned that the industry and government are incompetent, lack transparency, and cannot be trusted to ensure that other pristine waterways around Tasmania will not be destroyed in the same way.
Proposed Expansion - Storm Bay
Tasmania’s Salmon Producers are preparing for an expansion into Storm Bay that will double the size of the industry. The initial expansion is for 30,000-40,000 tonnes per annum with an aspirational target of 80,000 tpa. This represents a 1,300% increase in the amount of salmon produced and associated pollution. This rapid upscaling suggests neither the government nor industry has learnt from its mistakes in Macquarie Harbour.
The government’s controls on pollution are among the worst in the world. The industry regularly breaks its lease conditions, but the government and regulator do nothing aside from lowering the thresholds which define non-compliance.
The industry expansion will create a concentrated nutrient input (dissolved and solid nitrogen pollution) in Storm Bay. Elevated nitrogen levels cause algal blooms and re-suspend heavy metals trapped in bottom sediments. The Derwent has some of the highest sedimentary heavy metal concentrations in the world.
All oceanic water passes through Storm Bay into the Derwent Estuary, Frederick Henry and Norfolk Bay. These bays are prime recreational fishing and boating areas and host most of Greater Hobart and the Southern beaches. The D’Entrecasteaux is already experiencing elevated nitrogen levels due to the presence of large nutrient input from fish farms. The urine and faecal pollution from the salmon will be around 2,296 tpa (initial expansion),then 4,592 tpa mainly in the form of dissolved nitrogen (approximately 85% of the total output is released as a solution into the water column). (Derwent Estuary Program, (DEP) 2018)
Storm Bay is considered by the Derwent Estuary Program to be part of a much bigger system that includes the Derwent Estuary, the current total human output of dissolved nitrogen into the estuary is only 327 tpa. Salmon industry modelling clearly shows that a portion of the pollution will be pushed into the Derwent Estuary, Frederick Henry and Norfolk Bay, though what percentage remains unclear. Even 5% would represent a doubling of the current nutrient inputs. Any increase above current inputs will result in an increased risk of toxic algal blooms and heavy metal resuspension.
April 2021: ‘Flanagan's anti-salmon push growing, as EPA emails to Tassal revealed’ (courtesy ABC News reportage: click on the image for full article)
Dec 2020: ‘Another farmed salmon mass breakout in Tasmanian waters stuns Huon Aquaculture’ (courtesy ABC News reportage: click on the image for full article)
WE ARE NOT ALONE! HERE ARE SOME FISH FARM ISSUES FROM AROUND THE WORLD…
A documentary on the rush to contain a spill of farmed Atlantic salmon in north Puget Sound before they tarnished local waters, shedding light on a global struggle between farmed and wild fish. Spills and mass deaths have happened recently in Tasmania, further damaging local coastal waters
A documentary on fish farms and aqua industry and their effect on the communities that surround them. Made in 2012, it’s relevant to Tasmania today