Tassal data release: Useless if you’re a fish or a fish farmer

Environment Tasmania welcomed today Tassal’s efforts to address community concerns about their Okehampton Bay site, as the company shared summary results of monthly sampling at Okehampton Bay on their website.

However, the graphs provided by Tassal are fairly useless if you are a fish or a fish farmer and give the community no guarantee that water temperature or oxygen levels at the site will support intensive salmon farming.

“These graphs are fairly useless if you’re a fish or a fish farmer,” Laura Kelly, Strategic Director at Environment Tasmania said.

“I can tell you that if you’re a fish or fish farmer, it doesn’t matter what the average temperature is, what matters is the maximum daily temperature.”

“The same applies to Tassal’s Dissolved Oxygen summary for the Bay. What matters are daily DO levels, not monthly levels. All you need is one hot day and fish will die – no matter what the monthly average is.”

“Newly released information on Tassal’s website also states that recent ocean warming events on Tassie’s east coast were due to a ‘1 in 100 years’ marine heatwave. This contradicts the advice of the CSIRO’s Dr Alistair Hobday, who has referred to recent ocean warming events as ‘a window into Tasmania’s future’.”

“The science shows Tasmania’s East Coast waters will continue warming, which is one reason why Okehampton Bay is such a poor choice for intensive salmon farming.”

“While we commend Tassal for responding to community concerns, if the data they are providing is insufficient to give the public a clear indication of what the impacts of fish farming will be at the site, then it is of little value.”

“Environment Tasmania reiterates our calls for DPIPWE and Tassal to make all environmental data for Okehampton Bay available to the public and extend the period for public submissions to the Review of the lease.”

Earlier: More is more when it comes to scientific data
Laura Kelly Strategy Director Environment Tasmania