Skate Still in Peril a Year after Landmark Report

Transcript of media conference with Alistair Allan (Bob Brown Foundation Marine Campaigner), Eloise Carr (Director, Tasmanian Branch of The Australia Institute), James Watts (Environment Tasmania Save the Skate Campaigner) and Peter George (President, Neighbours of Fish Farming).

Alistair Allan

Today marks the grim one year anniversary of the emergency interim report put out by the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Sciences, calling for urgent action to protect the Maugean skate. One year on, absolutely nothing has been done to remove the threats to this animal. Salmon farms remain in Macquarie Harbour, not a single pen has been de-stocked, not a single pen has been taken out. And all this time, one year later, means that we are one year closer to the extinction of this incredible species. We need action now to get pens out of the harbour And we need the federal minister to ensure that she keeps her promise of no new extinctions. The Maugean skate, it’s right there, it’s on the edge and it needs action now.

Journalist – unidentified

Were you disappointed with the PM’s response when he visited and kind of didn’t really give much –

Alistair Allan

I think the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to understand that his government promised the Australian public that there would be no new extinctions. It’s not about enjoying Tasmanian salmon. It’s about protecting Tasmanian animals. This animal has been on the earth for thousands and thousands of years and in a incredibly short period of time we’re going to wipe it out. That’s on the Prime Minister, he needs to act. He can’t be the person who has the first extinction of a shark or ray on his hands due to aquaculture, that cannot be Australia’s record.

Journalist – unidentified

This morning the government said it was one of the most tested waterways in Australia, they’ve got their breeding program. How can you say that they’re not doing anything to protect the Maugean skate?

Alistair Allan

Alistair Allan.

When the federal government came and did an assessment on what was the threats to the Maugean skate, they listed salmon farming as a catastrophic impact on the Maugean skate, and recommended that they be removed by the summer that’s gone by, last summer in 2023. That was the federal conservation advice. It wasn’t to take a few and put it in a tank. It wasn’t to put new monitoring equipment, it wasn’t to put a little machine to blow bubbles into the water. It was to remove the direct threats to that animal.

Journalist – unidentified

It’s one year on and you say that there’s been little done, do you find that shocking? Or do you think that’s… you’re I guess maybe used to this?

Alistair Allan

I think it’s incredibly shocking that nothing has been done, given the absolute iron-clad science saying that this animal is disappearing from our planet. It is not uncertain, it is not unclear. It is absolutely irrefutable that salmon farming is impacting this animal and driving it to extinction. So not to act for a year is reprehensible.

Journalist – unidentified

What do you make of the data coming out today showing oxygen levels are improving?

Alistair Allan

The new data that’s being parroted today is essentially like saying, ‘Well, we had one cool summer so climate change is over’. What happened was there was a natural event occurred in Macquarie Harbour that wasn’t predicted, where there was an influx of oxygenated water. Now that’s a lifeline for the skate. But it’s not a lifeline for Salmon Tasmania. It’s not a lifeline for the threats that are driving this animal to extinction. Luckily, mother nature has provided perhaps a reprieve for the skate, but those threats remain and must be removed.

Tasmanian Times

Apart from the oxygen levels, are there are other things that salmon farming does that disturb the skate?

Alistair Allan

The salmon farming in the harbour has a myriad of issues that it causes for the marine environment. It’s not just the oxygen draw-down. It’s the high loading of nutrients. It’s the pollution. It’s everything that comes with them, but it is really the fact that there’s an animal that lives in a certain part of the harbour that just cannot breathe. There’s just not enough oxygen for this animal to share that harbour, which is I might remind everyone, its only habitat. This is the only place that the Maugean skate is found. It has nowhere to go. So salmon farms are taking the only oxygen it has to breathe.

What’s next is that we need to see what should have happened a year ago, when the report came out, come to fruition. We know it’s a catastrophic threat to have fish farms in the harbour They must come out. Tanya Plibersek has this decision in front of her: she needs to make that decision to absolutely revoke the license to have fish farms in Macquarie Harbour. All right, I might pass on to Eloise from the Australia Institute.

Eloise Carr.

Eloise Carr

My name is Eloise Carr, and I’m the Director of the Tasmanian branch of The Australia Institute. We’re here today to support the brave scientists who interrupted their work to alert us to the plight of the Maugean skate. It’s science that’s telling us about the skate. It’s science that has identified salmon farming as the primary threat to the endangered Maugean skate. And it’s science that’s told us what we need to do to address that. The scientists have been crystal clear that we need to eliminate or significantly reduce fish farming in Macquarie Harbour if we are to save the skate

Journalist – unidentified

[inaudible]

Eloise Carr

The IMAS report that came out 12 months ago told us about the decline, 47% of skate between 2014 and 2021. In September last year, the Australian Government’s threatened species scientific committee identified salmon farming as the primary threat to the Maugean skate. And they identified the industry as having catastrophic consequences for the skate. They also identified that the number one priority was to either eliminate or significantly reduce salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.

Recently had a Freedom of Information request that released documents, which show that the industry by their own admission have 109 jobs based out of Macquarie Harbour. Not all of those people are based full-time in Macquarie Harbour. So the business that the salmon lobby has been misleading Tasmanians, with of some 400 jobs being affected is just untrue. It’s simply untrue based on the industry’s own admission.

Of course, we should be supporting workers if they need to transition or be supported to retrain or find new employment, just like we do when businesses have to close for economic reasons. But we need to make those decisions based on real data, not misinformation that the salmon lobby continues to promulgate.

James Watts.

James Watts

My name is James Watts. I work for Environment Tasmania, and I am their Save the Skate campaigner.

My campaign is specifically to get Tasmanian businesses on board. Specifically looking at Tasmania’s clean green brand. We’re trying to protect that. So businesses that rely on that clean green brand. Were trying to get them on board to save the Maugean skate. We are going to get those businesses to then combat the salmon industry, lobby the government and try and get some actual change happening in Tasmania focusing on removing salmon from Macquarie Harbour

Journalist – unidentified

Do you have any businesses on the west coast involved?

James Watts

I am focusing on that now. The campaign’s only just started so yes, I am looking at contacting those businesses and specifically in the northern half of the state.

Tasmanian Times

You mentioned local businesses but a lot of Tasmanian salmon is sold through national chains like the big two supermarkets. So are you also going to approach those national businesses?

James Watts

Yes, I believe we’ll probably look at approaching some national businesses as well. But my main focus is still on Tasmania.

Peter George.

Peter George

The minister Eric Abetz is basically, along with the rest of the government, running interference for salmon companies: foreign owned, don’t pay tax here, take their profits overseas and have got no interest and no stake in Tasmania’s long term natural heritage and our future. That’s against Tasmanians who desperately try to protect the natural heritage of this state.

And frankly, it’s a it’s a shame and it’s a shameful act to claim that Macquarie Harbour is recovering just because there is a temporary reprieve brought by nature and not by any human hand to the Maugean skate. It is still as under threat, as it has ever been. This industry needs to get out of the harbour And it needs to get out quickly because that’s what the science says.

Journalist – unidentified

Do you think maybe in a decade’s time, it won’t kind of continue on that scale [inaudible]

Peter George

No, I think one of the professors from IMAS was absolutely right when he says that within 10 years the Maugean skate will be the thylacine of the sea: it will be extinct and that will be the end of it. If they don’t act now, when are they going to act?

Journalist – unidentified

Talk us through the Save the Skate campaign.

Peter George

The Save the Skate campaign has brought together groups from right across Tasmania, from the north to the south, from the east to the west. Neighbours of Fish Farming is taking the campaign to the mainland, and we will be putting up billboards particularly in the heartland of the Labour Prime Minister and the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek. To remind her about her absolute undertaking, ‘no extinctions on my watch’. We need to let them know that we are fighting in Tasmania, and that we are appealing to Australians throughout Australia not to allow this first extinction to take place under Labour’s rule.

Journalist – unidentified

Have you had any consultations with the minister?

Peter George

Neither the government nor the industry wants to talk to anyone who’s part and parcel of trying to save the skate. They choose who they talk to; they don’t talk to us. In fact, it was made very clear to me personally by Salmon Tasmania’s spin merchant, Luke Martin, just a few weeks back, that he would never speak to a community group like Neighbours of Fish Farming, despite the fact that we not only represent people in our local community, but people from around the state.

Tasmanian Times

Where does the funding for your campaign come from?

Peter George

The funding for our campaign comes from individual donations, usually very small donations and from memberships. We’re certainly not being backed by any large companies. However, it’s important to note that those businesses that actually do give us sort of larger sums of money are generally run by people who are quite conservative, most likely Liberal supporters in this state, who would support normal Liberal policies, but loathe what the fish farms are doing to our waterways

Tasmanian Times

Would an extinction be a major international embarrassment for both Tasmania and Australia?

Peter George

UNESCO is already asking the government for an explanation about why the government hasn’t acted to save them against skate. What a terrible blight it will be on Tasmania, what a terrible blight on our brand and on our reputation for being supposedly green and sustainable, if we are going to be responsible for literally driving to death, knowing that we’re doing it, using industry to do it, driving to death and extinction a 60 million year old animal that is a survivor of the dinosaurs. It would be a humiliation for all of Tasmania and dreadful shame on both the federal and the Labor and the state governments. Do

Journalist – unidentified

Do you think Tasmania could be impacted in other ways from I guess, looking into the future if the Maugean skate does go extinct? Could you think that there’ll be other implications for Tasmania not having that clean green brand?

Peter George

Tasmania’s future relies upon the fact that so many people around Australia so many people around the world consider Tasmania to be one of the great hot-spots for nature, for preserving a state, for being clean, and for being green, and for being a wonderful place for the outdoors. To have driven one animal to extinction back in the 20s, the thylacine, to do the same thing again all these years later, to another survivor of an ancient age, would be a total disgrace. It would be truly devastating for Tasmania’s projection of itself and for Tasmania’s reflection on itself.

Media release – Nick Duigan, Minister for Parks and Environment; Eric Abetz, Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, 16 May 2024

Improvements in oxygen levels at Macquarie Harbour

The Tasmanian Government welcomes data released by the Independent Environmental Regulator which shows the best consecutive results for Macquarie Harbour since reporting commenced in 2016.

Minister for parks and Environment, Nick Duigan, said the survey into the environmental regulation of finfish farming demonstrates that the work underway by the National Recovery Team – which includes the
Tasmanian Government, the Federal Government, the salmon industry and IMAS – is working.

“The EPA report found all 35 metres compliance points at marine farms in Macquarie Harbour are compliant with environmental licence requirements,” Minister Duigan said.

“This data reinforces that industry and research investment in remediation of dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour is effective and working.

“The Tasmanian Government firmly believes that the Maugean Skate and the salmon industry can continue to co-exist.

“There is now a comprehensive Conservation Action Plan being implemented to ensure the survival of the Maugean skate, and a comprehensive environmental management framework which is ensuring sustainable salmon farming operations in the harbour.”

Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, Eric Abetz, said the new data must not be ignored by the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, and further supports our Government’s view that salmon farming should continue.

“Our position is absolutely clear: we unequivocally back salmon jobs around Tasmania.

“Requests to reconsider the existing environmental approvals for salmon farming in Macquarie Harbor have no sound basis and no change to the original decision is required.

“Labor needs to stop speaking out of both sides of its mouth on salmon jobs. It cannot, on the one hand, have Julie Collins celebrate the Prime Minister’s visit to a salmon processing plant in the South and, on the other, have Minister Plibersek flirt with inner-Sydney green votes by reconsidering the sector’s existing approvals on the West Coast.

“Through our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania, we will stand up for our sustainable aquaculture industries as well as the unique natural environments in which they operate – not sacrificing either for the sake of the other.”

Media release – EPA, 15 May 2024

Macquarie Harbour seabed compliance results best on record since becoming EPA regulated

​Macquarie Harbour surveys have yielded improving compliance results since the EPA became responsible for environmental regulation of finfish farming in 2016.

Finfish farmers are required to undertake four-monthly seabed video surveys at marine finfish farms in Macquarie Harbour for compliance assessment purposes.

In January 2024 all 35m compliance points were found to be compliant with environmental licence requirements. This is a great improvement compared to previous January results.

Seabed video surveys over the past 12 months have shown only one non-compliance at a 35m compliance point. These are the best consecutive survey results, as shown in the compliance history table.

Commencing in 2017, the EPA Director progressively cut finfish farming in Macquarie Harbour by half.

The latest dissolved oxygen data for Macquarie Harbour is also encouraging. Oxygen levels have gradually increased, and some deeper parts of the harbour are approaching the Interim Default Guideline Values (DGVs)  which were calculated based on data from before oxygen levels started to decline circa 2009.

EPA Director, Wes Ford, said “I am cautiously optimistic that environmental conditions in Macquarie Harbour are improving, and this provides a foundation for further improvements through Salmon Tasmania’s oxygenation research project, which is currently proving up oxygenation technology for use in the unique environment of Macquarie Harbour.”​