Media releaase – Australian Marine Conservation Society and Humane Society International Australia, 2 February 2024
Will Maugean skate plan be road to recovery or ruin?
The Maugean skate national recovery team’s “roadmap of agreed actions” will enable the public to hold all stakeholders to account for their responsibility to save the skate, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) and Humane Society International Australia (HSI Australia) said after the plan was released by the federal government today.
Oxygen levels have collapsed in the skate’s only home, Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, because of intensive salmon farming,[1] with the skate on the verge of extinction with fears fewer than 1000 remain.[2] Since December two adults have died in the captive breeding program, highlighting the urgency to restore the health and resilience of the harbour.
The plan is a comprehensive strategy that examines and provides advice on addressing all factors impacting the skate, including critical actions to reduce salmon biomass in Macquarie Harbour, as well as a captive breeding program and an oxygen pumping trial.
Key measures outlined in the roadmap include up-to-date and ongoing modelling to support management of river flows that maximise oceanic recharging of oxygen in the harbour, and monitoring the skate’s population.
AMCS Fisheries and Threatened Species Campaign Manager Alexia Wellbelove said: “The Maugean skate roadmap is an encouraging step forward that will inform the public and hold all stakeholders to account for their responsibility to save the skate.
“However, the federal government must improve the roadmap because any reductions in salmon biomass would only be considered from mid-2024, when the government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee clearly identified the reduction of salmon biomass was needed as an urgent priority to take place ahead of this summer.
“The oxygen pumping trial is a necessary complementary measure but it is just a trial. No one knows if it will work, and the public as yet doesn’t even know how it will work. You can’t put a bandaid on a leg with gangrene in the hope the infection won’t spread in the meantime. Salmon biomass has to be removed from Macquarie Harbour immediately.
“Tasmania’s famed reputation for clean and green produce will be forever tarnished if the skate becomes extinct. There is a ‘catastrophic’ risk that it will be the first time aquaculture has been the primary cause and directly driven the extinction of a marine fish.”
HSI marine biologist Lawrence Chlebeck said: “The captive breeding program is an emergency measure and will only be successful if skates and their eggs can be collected from and returned to a healthy Macquarie Harbour. The recent deaths of two adult skates in the program highlights how precarious their existence is. We need to urgently restore the health and resilience of the harbour by addressing the root cause – salmon farming. It is imperative that the government accelerates the timeline to save the skate.”
Following letters sent by the Environmental Defenders Office on behalf of AMCS and HSI, federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek is reviewing the future of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour under Australia’s nature laws, opening a public consultation period that ends today.
Alexia Wellbelove said: “Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek must take action and end salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour, and address the root cause to both save the skate and provide resilience to a World Heritage Area. What use are our nature laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, if they don’t have the teeth to do exactly what the title of the act says?”
Media release – Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, 2 February 2024
Maugean skate recovery team dismiss federal government advice
Federal government advice to protect the Maugean skate from extinction by taking “urgent actions…prior to summer 2023” including “a reduction in salmonid aquaculture organic loads” has been dismissed by the Maugean skate national recovery team.
Instead the Maugean skate national recovery team today announced an agreement to “investigate, and where feasible, implement methods for reducing salmon aquaculture oxygen demand on Macquarie Harbour” from July 2024.
Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson for lutruwita/Tasmania, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
“I know many in the Maugean skate national recovery team are fighting tooth and nail to protect the skate, but this decision is off.
“Why wait until July 2024 to reduce salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour when science tells us action is needed today?!
“It’s a cruel irony that a national recovery team would let a species languish like this.
“This is clearly an economic and political decision, not an environmental one – it stinks of the state government and salmon industry hijacking the recovery team’s agenda.
“I implore Tanya Plibersek to pull every lever available to give the skate the best possible chance of survival, inducing the removal of Atlantic salmon from Macquarie Harbour.”
Statement – Peter George, President, Neighbours of Fish Farming, 2 February 2024
Roadmap marks a start in saving, Maugean skate and Removing salmon industry from Macquarie Harbour
The roadmap for the recovery of the Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour, released today, should mark a turning point for the survival of a relic of the era of dinosaurs.
While action should have been taken before this summer’s marine heatwave, as recommended by a Federal scientific advisory body, the roadmap should lead to the removal of the salmon industry from the waterway.
NOFF welcomes action 4.4 in the plan but says it should be implemented immediately rather than be delayed until the middle of the year:
“Investigate, and where feasible, implement methods for reducing salmon aquaculture oxygen demand on Macquarie Harbour including by decreasing salmon biomass in Macquarie Harbour through mechanisms such as lifecycle-based gradual destocking, fallowing of pens, growing out on land, movement of stock to other locations. Feasibility assessment as per Action 4.1 and informed by Action 4.2.”
If implemented as recommended, the roadmap will mark a victory for ordinary Tasmanians and our marine heritage in the face of foreign-owned industrial salmon companies that have no vested interest in the state other than to make profits and move those profits off-shore.
NOFF remains concerned that if urgent action is not taken to restore the health of this damaged and iconic West Coast waterway, not only will the Maugean skate become the “Thylacine of the sea”, but the state’s reputation for its extraordinary biodiversity will be once more undermined.
