Media release – Andrew Wilkie, independent MHR for Clark, 3 March 2025
Salmon mass death event – YET ANOTHER TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT FIASCO
“The revelation on ABC Radio this morning that the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority knows so little about the ongoing salmon mass death just goes to show how rapidly this terrible saga has descended into another Tasmanian Government fiasco”, Mr Wilkie said.
“It turns out the EPA doesn’t know how many fish have died, exactly which strain of rickettsia is involved and what the effect will be of the spike in antibiotic use. In other words, we don’t know the scale of the problem, if the rickettsia will also be killing native marine life, or if the antibiotics are contaminating native wildlife or are harmful to humans.
“I was also unconvinced by the EPA’s assurance that infected fish are not being sold for human consumption, because we simply don’t know if live fish set for processing are being tested for rickettsia. I assume not, especially given the rumours about this coming out of the industry.
“Mind you I do not blame the EPA for any of this, because at the end of the day it is simply doing its job as designed and resourced by the Tasmanian Government. Again, the problem is the Government which is useless and beholden to the salmon industry.”
Ian Sale
March 3, 2025 at 12:42
At a public meeting held at South Arm on February 22, a resolution expressing a loss of confidence in the EPA and its capacity to regulate the salmon industry was passed unanimously.
At this event the meeting was informed that Huon aquaculture workers cleaning Verona Sands told locals that the white lumps were ‘fish oil’. Later on the same day the head of EPA’s compliance section used exactly the same phrase.
We now know that within the industry these fatty gobbets are nicknamed ‘popcorn’.
Kevin Ellard
March 5, 2025 at 09:19
I find it interesting that the director of Biosecurity Tasmania, Rae Burrows, has remained silent throughout this issue. After all, Rickettsia-like organism (RLO) is a disease, and therefore it’s a significant biosecurity risk. As such, management of the disease event is her responsibility.
I acknowledge that the RLO is most likely a disease that has been transferred from native fish populations to farmed salmon; in fact all diseases known to affect Tasmanian salmon have originated in this way. Such is the risk of marine sea cages because they bring dense salmon populations into contact with the surrounding marine environment.
That does not make this event any less important than an introduced disease. In this case a strain of RLO is currently being amplified in salmon cage populations and released back into the surrounding environment with decomposing fish. Thus the level of RLO surrounding these salmon leases can assumed to be greatly increased. We simply do not know what impact this is having on local fish populations, and this is currently being pushed aside as a non-issue by Salmon Tasmania.
I also find it hard to believe that Biosecurity Tasmania does not know what strain of RLO is affecting salmon farms because it is simply not saying. Prior to this event, strains of RLO tended to be geographically isolated with different strains known to exist in the south east, Macquarie Harbour and the Tamar River, but there was mention of a new strain in 2022.
Biosecurity Tasmania has the ability to identify these strains and should be providing more information than it has been. Is this a new strain from Okehampton Bay that has been transferred to the south east farms due to poor industry biosecurity?
In 2023 there was great fanfare about the Tasmanian Salmonid Biosecurity Plan which was largely managed by industry, but also audited by third parties. It appears that this plan has failed at the first hurdle.