Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF), 9 March 2022
Neighbours of Fish Farming opposes Living Marine Resources Management Amendment (Offshore Aquaculture Research) Bill 2021
Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF) strongly recommends that the Tasmanian Upper House reject the Living Marine Resources Management Amendment (Offshore Aquaculture Research) Bill.
The proposed Bill would allow the state government to regulate aquaculture offshore, in Commonwealth waters, which is a disturbing development in federal-state relations.
NOFF Vice President, Lisa Litjens, said that the federal government was attempting to avoid its responsibility for setting and maintaining standards in Commonwealth waters by transferring control to a State government with an appalling track record in overseeing the health and sustainability of its waters.
The Tasmanian government has been irresponsibly supportive of the salmon industry. Its state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to effectively enforce established standards, routinely applying token penalties for massive and repeated breaches.
Nitrogen and plastic pollution from intensive feed-lot pens, plus industrial levels of noise and light pollution, are seriously damaging ‘Brand Tasmania’s’ clean, green image, and subsequently, our far more valuable tourism and hospitality industries.
NOFF’s position is clear: the Bill should not proceed. It purports to establish a three-year research project which is inadequately defined, and with very little, or no, community consultation. Scientific evidence shows that Bass Strait is very shallow, and has restricted water flows, so pollution will not be properly flushed away from the proposed fish pens. The risk to local wildlife such as penguins and migrating whales is unjustifiable.
Science tells us that salmon farming will not be possible in Tasmanian waters within a few years due to increasing ocean temperatures associated with global warming. We already know that salmon are badly affected by warming waters, as we discovered recently with the 60,000 deaths of Petuna salmon in the Tamar Valley.
The only effective solution is to move rapidly to fully land-based, reticulating aquaculture systems, which are increasingly being introduced overseas.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 9 March 2022
Offshore salmon research bill must not pass
Bob Brown Foundation is calling on Tasmania’s government to legislate marine protection, not fish farm expansion, as the Tasmanian upper house debates a toxic offshore salmon research bill today. If passed, the salmon industry will be able to research in Commonwealth waters with the state government as the regulator.
“We urge the members of the Tasmanian Upper House to vote down this bill,” says Bec Howarth, Bob Brown Foundation’s Fish Farms and Marine Campaigner.
“Tasmania’s government is pushing massive offshore fish factory expansions while seizing federal waters with minimal consultation with the Tasmanian people. Proposed new offshore technology will mean a larger scale industry, automation of jobs and all the same problems coastlines have suffered from salmon farming but on a larger scale.”
“Offshore fish factories are not the sustainable or environmental solution being touted. Current issues for Tasmanian coastal communities and our wildlife still go unsolved. It is the Tasmanian wildlife, oceans and community that will bear the burden of the environmental, lifestyle and scenic degradation that’s coming down the line.”
“It will be another loss for Tasmania’s marine environment and coastal communities if the legislation passes today.
This is the UN Decade of Restoration. The global community must prioritise Ocean health and restoration over further industrialisation.”
