Media release – Friends of the Bays, Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF), 6 December 2024

Communities ramp-up campaign on salmon farming expansion

South Arm community group, Friends of the Bays, (FOB) continues its fight on Sunday to halt plans by Atlantic salmon multinational, Petuna, to install up to 50 large open-net pens in the north of Storm Bay.

Following a standing-room only community meeting at Sandford last month, FOB is holding a mass paddle-out to protest the plans at Cremorne Beach at 11am on Sunday, December 8.

Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF) and the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection (TAMP) are supporting the protest which has also attracted participants from communities in the northwest resisting salmon industry expansion plans in Bass Strait.

Fears for critically endangered red handfish

NOFF president, Peter George, says communities on South Arm and around Dodges Ferry have made it clear to state and federal politicians they will fight Petuna’s plans to expand the industry further north than ever in Storm Bay, close to Frederick Henry Bay where the critically endangered red handfish has its only habitat. (See below for unanimous resolutions at both meetings)

“On the west coast the foreign-owned industry is driving the Maugean skate closer and closer to extinction with the support of state and federal politicians against Tasmania’s best interests.

“Communities in the northwest of Storm Bay are not going to let that happen to the red handfish.”

FOB was formed by Tasmanian surfer, Mick Lawrence, who died in June and was committed to preserving the much-loved beaches and foreshores of the north of Storm Bay. See Petuna’s plans here.

Unanimous resolution of standing room only community meetings at Doges Ferry and Sandford:

Noting widespread community concern about industrial light, noise, debris & pollution caused by multinational salmon producers on the Tasmanian coastline and the industry’s impact on marine life, beaches, reefs and rivers, this meeting at South Arm of communities in the vicinity of north Storm Bay resolves to:

Reject and fight plans by the salmon industry to establish any further open-net Atlantic salmon pens in Storm Bay.

In particular we reject and commit to fighting the plans of multinational Sealord, operating as Petuna, to establish salmon pens in the area south and east of Betsey Island and just west of Sloping Main, close to Frederick Henry Bay and Norfolk Bay.