Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 23 August 2022
Tasmanian salmon industry met with direct action on the water for the first time
Today, for the first time ever, environmentalists have halted fish farm company Tassal’s operations as they attempted to return salmon to Long Bay on the Tasman peninsula.
Using community boats, Tassal’s factory vessel, the Aqua Spa, was prevented from mooring alongside the 16 empty pens in Long Bay and pumping live juvenile salmon into the open cages.
For months leading up to today, the local community requested that Tassal not fill the Long Bay pens with salmon and instead remove them as recommended in the Tasmanian Legislative Councils Finfish inquiry.
“Today’s resistance is because Tassal refuses to listen to the community. With IMAS reports confirming the damage this toxic industry does, along with seeing it with our own eyes, neither Tassal nor the Government has done anything to address community concerns. So, they have left us no choice but to defend this beautiful pace ourselves,” said Alistair Allan, Bob Brown Foundation Fish Farm campaigner.
“Tasmanians have had enough of the toxic salmon industry destroying our waterways. It is time for these pens to get out of the water.”
“Long Bay was once a pristine alcove on the Tasman Peninsula. Now, like every site fish farms are put in, it has been trashed. Recommendation 3 of the Tasmanian Legislative Councils Finfish Inquiry was to remove pens from shallow, protected, and biodiverse waters. That is Long Bay. The legislative council thinks it should be gone, IMAS is releasing reports confirming salmon farms are impacting the ecosystem, yet somehow this toxic industry, with the government in their pocket, thunders on.”
“Unless this industry starts to get out of Tasmania’s waters, the Bob Brown Foundation will meet the toxic salmon head on. These community pushbacks will only grow.”
Media release – Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Environment and Biodiversity spokesperson, 23 September 2022
Long Bay Protest Stands Up to Toxic Salmon Industry
The Greens stand with the residents of the Tasman Peninsula defending their waterways. We applaud Bob Brown Foundation for their attempt at preventing salmon being returned to 16 empty fish farm pens in Long Bay.
Evidence of the terrible environmental damage caused by Tassal’s escalating industrial fish farming in Long Bay is nothing short of indefensible.
It’s been years since Tassal said they would leave inshore waters. The government have done nothing – of course – and it’s up to civil society to step in.
Long Bay is a clear example of how the Environment Protection Authority is failing to protect Tasmania’s precious marine ecosystems. Once again, they have instead protected the commercial interests of massive industrial fish farm operators.
Given the track record of the international corporates taking over Tasmania’s fish farming companies, the huge environmental, social, and economic risks associated with this industry have increased even further. Yet the Liberals continues to sit on their hands, and won’t take the necessary steps to protect this beautiful island’s unique waterways.
It’s well past time industrial fish farming got out of inshore waters. The Greens stand with coastal communities, and will continue to fight for this crucial change on behalf of Tasmania’s environment.
