Media Release – Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection (TAMP), 1 February 2021
TAMP welcomes FOI documents
Tasmania’s peak marine protection organisation, the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection (TAMP) welcomes the publication of FOI information documenting shortcuts the state government took in granting industrial salmon producers leases to operate in Storm Bay without proper oversight. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-31/storm-bay-salmon-furore/13103154)
The organisation says it brings a little much-needed transparency into the opaque workings of government as it bends to the industry’s will.
“It comes as no surprise to hear that a government body set up to facilitate the industry’s rapid expansion was operating on ‘skeleton staffing’ when it recommended approval of a vast, unsustainable expansion of the industry in a major waterway,” says Peter George, co-chair of TAMP.
“From start to finish, the process was a sham – the hearings of the Marine Farming Planning Review Panel gave short shrift to any organisation or individual raising concerns.
“The process was such a farce that the panel’s two respected marine scientists resigned in protest and the government then tried to hide their reasons.
“Now, without proper scientific baselines being established, Storm Bay faces the same potential future that has already devastated Macquarie Harbour, the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, the Huon River and estuary.
“This is a government held in the thrall of an industry that vastly exaggerates its employment potential and its contribution to the state coffers while practicing unsustainable production methods, polluting the waterways with its floating feedlots and threatening Tasmania’s reputation as a source of great foodstuffs, sustainably produced.”
TAMP has called on the industry and government to immediately start the process of moving salmon production ashore into recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), following an international trend to move production out of coastal areas and into land-based production.
