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On Bass Strait Salmon Feedlot Trial …
Announcement – Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 15 February 2022
Proposed area for trialling aquaculture in Commonwealth waters
Aquaculture operations currently only occur in state and Northern Territory waters. By extending these operations into adjacent Commonwealth waters we can help grow Australia’s aquaculture sector to $2 billion by 2027.
The area proposed to conduct a research trial is located around 6 nautical miles off Tasmania’s north-west coastline, offshore from Burnie, Tasmania. Tasmania is home to Australia’s largest aquaculture sector, and holds a great deal of expertise and experience in aquaculture.
The trial will extend for a period of 3 years followed by a review. Once the trial has concluded there will be additional consultation before long-term arrangements are made.
The trial, conducted by the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre, will consider the environmental, economic, and operational feasibility of offshore aquaculture. Though we will be initially focusing on salmon, we will also explore other opportunities such as seaweed farming systems.
For further information about the trial, read the background paper and view the map.
To tell us if you agree or disagree with the proposal take the survey now.
Survey closes 5pm(AEDT), Thursday 24 February 2022.
Yes Minister Salmon Survey
Government Seeks Community Opinion On Project That Doesn’t Seem To Exist
The state and federal governments and the Blue Economy CRC have selected a preferred site for research into open water salmon farming. In keeping with a commitment to consultation, interested parties have been asked to fill in an online survey regarding the site.
“I stayed up last night searching for details on the project – I just couldn’t find any. It’s like an episode of Yes Minister or Utopia,” said Leanne Minshull Senate candidate for The Local Party.
There does not appear to be any information on:
The size of the trial, what pens would be used, stocking densities, public reporting periods, what if any commercial arrangements will exist, terms of reference for the project, how they intend to measure success or even what is intended to be measured.
“It’s like asking people if they think Salamanca is a good spot for a new building without saying how big it is, who is building it and what it will be used for”
I hope I am missing something – otherwise it’s just the weirdest question I have ever been asked and the most pointless survey I have ever filled in.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 16 February 2022
Stealth invasion of Bass Strait by big business
The long-predicted invasion of Bass Strait by industrial fish farming is underway by stealth, Bob Brown Foundation’s Marine and Fish Farms Campaigner Bec Howarth said today.
“The seals, seabirds and fisheries of Bass Strait now face all the cruelties brought to southern Tasmanian waterways by the invasion of private aquaculture companies.
Taxpayers money flowing through ‘Blue Economy’ is being used to featherbed private corporations at the expense of the publicly-owned marine and coastal amenity. The Gutwein and Morrison governments should end the stealth and state exactly how much this will cost everyone,” said Bec Howarth.
“The huge public campaigns to protect Bass Strait waters from the threats of pollution from the Wesley Vale pulp mill and then the Gunns pulp mill proposal on the Tamar have been sold out by Premier Gutwein in this move. The prospect of the aquaculture industry in Bass Strait as hinted at by what little the governments have announced will make those pulp mill threats to the marine ecosystem look minor.
Public Submissions are only accepted for another nine days. This application and call for submissions have not been advertised at all to the North West coast community, who still remain completely in the dark,” concluded Bec Howarth.
Media release – Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, 16 February 2022
The industrialisation of waters off Tasmania’s north coast has begun by stealth
Commonwealth and Tasmanian governments have surreptitiously announced plans to install open-net salmon feedlots north of Burnie.
Without any prior consultation with affected communities, a zone of 24 square kilometres has been allocated for floating feedlots, 11 kilometres (6 nautical miles) off Burnie, for a “trial” of industrial salmon farming.
The project has been launched by Liberal state and federal governments in close coördination with the salmon industry and the industry-supported Blue Economy CRC, run by the husband of recently-resigned state Liberal minister, Sarah Courtney.
“It is a stitch-up by the usual vested interests and is industry expansion by stealth – exactly as predicted last year by TAMP and its affiliated community groups,” says Peter George, co-Chair of TAMP.
“This shows what Peter Gutwein’s hollow assurances of community consultations, a moratorium on expansion and greater transparency really mean – which is absolutely nothing.
“This so-called research is in reality a new commercial operation that will sell its product to the market – just like Japanese whalers claim their work is “research” but is really nothing more than cover.
“The Liberal Party can be assured that the industrialisation of the coastal waters of the Bass Strait will become an election issue in the Braddon electorate in the forthcoming federal election – a battleground electorate that may well decide the next government. The Labor candidate has already expressed concern about the salmon industry’s plans for the Bass Strait.
With deep cynicism and with no public advertising, Tasmanians are being asked “to tell us if you agree or disagree with the proposal” while withholding all details of size, scope, duration or impact of the so-called trial.
“Yet again, governments have yielded to industry demands for expansion at the expense of communities and the environment,” says Peter George.
“No one should be fooled. This is the start of an irreversible expansion of the destructive salmon industry into highly vulnerable waters.
“Coastal communities and fishers can expect to lose fishing grounds, to find more industrial debris on their foreshores and to see a failing marine environment.
The sad history of industrial salmon tells us that all warnings and concerns will be dismissed in pursuit of the salmon barons’ profits. (Two of the three salmon companies – Huon Aquaculture and Petuna – are owned by foreign multinationals with no stake or investment in the future of our waterways and marine life.)
Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming, 16 February 2022
Defending our Environment
A well-hidden survey on a federal government website reveals plans to approve heavily industrial fish farms in Commonwealth waters ten km off the northern coast of the state at Burnie.
With only nine days to go until closing, the survey is available on the website of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, but has not been well-publicised in Tasmania.
Tasmanians will be rightly outraged. This will do irreparable damage to Tasmania’s far more important tourism and hospitality sectors, damage the fragile marine environment of Bass Strait, and continue the industry’s appalling treatment of fish stocks and wildlife.
Despite a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Tasmanian government there is no federal legislation in place to ensure safe and responsible growth of industrial salmon production in Commonwealth waters of the Bass Strait. Regulation of the project is in the hands of the Tasmanian government which has utterly failed to protect southern waters from the rapacious industry while regulatory bodies are demonstrably dominated by industry and disinterested in the two most affected stakeholders, community and wildlife.
NOFF and affiliated groups have already warned about industry expansion by stealth. If allowed to proceed, this project will inevitably see the northern coastline and adjacent islands dominated by fish pens and resulting pollution.
Atlantic salmon do not belong in the Bass Strait and NOFF will ensure this becomes an issue in the forthcoming federal election.