Seventy members of the Huon, Channel and Bruny Island community attended a meeting in Cygnet tonight (Thursday). The meeting formed a group, Neighbours of Fish Farming, to promote and protect the interests of the Huon catchment, Channel and Bruny Island communities affected by fish farming.
“It was great for people to find that their concerns are shared by many people in the community. We feel that, as individuals, we don’t have a voice on issues that include the environmental, ecological, administrative, amenity, health and social impacts of the aquaculture sector” said De Arne Webb, the newly elected Convenor,
“Now we will work together to bring pressure on Tassal and Huon Aquaculture to be better neighbours. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”
We appreciate that some people reap the benefits of salmon farming but the attendees were mainly people who suffer the negative impacts: health impacts from industrial noise, loss of amenity, and the decline of native fish populations.
Many people are also concerned about environmental and ecological impacts and the spectre of unregulated growth.
“We have no access to monitoring data: that is kept in confidence by the industry players but the general feeling is the beautiful Huon River is dead or dying.”
www.facebook.com/Neighbours of Fish Farming
• Wild River Enthusiast in Comments: Talk to any local with half an interest in fishing and they will tell you of the decline of the Huon. Blackfish stocks used to be abundant, and there were loads more trout. When a few thousand large salmon escape they swim far up the river and eat everything, before dying from starvation, leaving nothing. They have been caught as far up as the Weld River. Down in the estuary the wild fish have to deal with the sea lice from the salmon pens. The Huon should be an asset for all, not just for a couple of fish farm companies …
