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Florfenicol Approval Sparks Widespread Condemnation
The approval of florfenicol antibiotic to be used in salmon farming has triggered condemnation following a public health warning that was issued late afternoon Friday 7 November 2025 about recreational fishing.
The EPA has received Veterinary Authority documents from Tassal notifying that Tassal will undertake treatment with Florfenicol at their Meads Creek (MFL 77) and Stringers Cove (MFL 209) leases commencing on 7 November 2025 for a period of 10 days.
Media release – Dr Mark Veitch, Director of Public Health, 7 November 2025
Public Health Advice On Recreational Fishing Safety
Public Health Services in the Department of Health issued precautionary advice to recreational fishers about exposure to florfenicol antibiotic residues, ahead of use in commercial salmon farming.
Commercial salmon producers have received approval from the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to use the antibiotic florfenicol to treat salmon infected with P. salmonis in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and adjacent waters.
Florfenicol is an antibiotic used in many countries for veterinary medicine, agriculture and aquaculture, including salmon farms. When farmed salmon are treated with florfenicol, wild fish nearby may also eat some of the medicated feed.
Dr Mark Veitch said that whilst there is no evidence of harm to human health from consuming traces of florfenicol, recreational fishers may choose to avoid exposure to antibiotic residues in the fish that they catch and eat.
To avoid exposure to antibiotic residues, Veitch recommends recreational fishers consider not eating fish caught within 3 kilometres of a salmon pen treated with florfenicol – both during the treatment period and for 21 days after it ends.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will release information on their website about the sites where salmon are being treated with florfenicol.
“Eating fish caught 3 kilometres away will not completely remove the chance of consuming antibiotic residues,” Veitch said. “However, it is reasonable to assume that the closer a fisher is to a pen being treated – during and shortly after treatment – the more likely it is they may catch a fish with traces of florfenicol.”
“After 21 days it is very unlikely that wild fish – even those caught within 3 kilometres of treated pens – will have any detectable traces of florfenicol.”
Veitch also noted that antibiotic-resistant germs are a serious contemporary health problem.
“To help prevent resistance, antibiotics should only be used when necessary and for clear medical or veterinary reasons,” he said.
“Under Australia’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy – 2020 and Beyond, everyone shares responsibility to use antibiotics appropriately.”
The EPA requires salmon producers to undertake environmental monitoring when they use antibiotics. This will generate data on florfenicol residues in wild fish and other environmental samples.
Public Health Services will use this to inform future public health advice.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MHA, Tasmanian Greens Leader, 8 November 2025
Florfenicol Approval Goes Off Like A Bomb
Rosalie Woodruff said news the Liberal Government has fast-tracked the antibiotic florfenicol for salmon companies to use has gone off like a bomb in southern communities. People are outraged the salmon industry will be allowed to operate unimpeded this summer, with marine life and companies bearing the burden for the government’s refusal to protect public waterways.
The Director of Public Health has advised that wild fish caught three kilometres from a dosed salmon pen should not be eaten for three weeks to prevent antibiotic residues being absorbed. The development of antibiotic resistance is an established serious risk when humans consume antibiotics in food. Grim news.
But where is the advice from the EPA about the impact of florfenicol on wild fish and microorganisms? They haven’t insisted on baseline testing of our marine environment. Yet evidence from research in Chile and elsewhere is deeply concerning, and shows the enormous loss of wild fish and bottom chain organisms.
Tassal has already started dumping florfenicol into its pens in the far south – but there is no information on public websites about ‘no-go’ fishing zones. Where is the advice to fishers and others about the timing, amount and location of florfenicol use?
The density of salmon farms across the Huon and Channel, Long Bay, Okehampton and Storm Bay, coupled with the distances wild fish travel, makes throwing in a line throughout these waters a risky business for recreational fishers.
Woodruff said the Liberal Government has a responsibility to regulate salmon farming companies to protect our marine environment. We don’t want barren seascapes like in Chile, void of marine life except industrial salmon.
Current evidence of algal blooms across Tasmania’s eastern coastline are a chilling portent. Salmon companies will continue to pour tonnes of waste and toxins into public waters to make maximum profits, feeding nutrients for algae – unless the Liberals regulates to rein them in.
Jeremy Rockliff needs to explain to fishers, people concerned about antibiotic resistance and marine diversity, how allowing florfenicol and refusing to strengthen salmon company regulations, is ‘putting the industry on notice’.
Coastal communities are disgusted at this backward step, and the Greens will support them in demanding action to protect our beautiful marine waters.
Media release – Rosalie Woodruff MHA, Tasmanian Greens Leader, 7 November 2025
Florfenicol Approval Deeply Concerning For Marine Environment
Rosalie Woodruff said it’s deeply concerning the new antibiotic florfenicol has been approved for salmon farming companies to use in Tasmanian waterways.
Heavy use of antibiotics is a ticking time bomb for animal and human health, as it leads to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Florfenicol is previously unused in Australian waters, and we don’t know the impact that broad-scale dumping in public waterways would have on the marine environment and wild fish.
The Liberal Government’s multi-agency review into last summer’s mortality event showed no intention of requiring salmon companies to prevent diseases outbreaks before they occur. Instead, it seems the industry will be allowed to use antibiotics as a standard response when outbreaks occur.
It’s disturbing the Liberals are following the lead of Chile, which has a notorious global reputation in fish farm mismanagement. Their coast’s wild fish stock has completely collapsed as a result of aquaculture industry practises.
We should be destocking cages to prevent disease outbreak, not dumping hundreds of kilograms of antibiotics into Tasmanian waters after they’ve occurred. Woodruff said the Liberals are putting salmon corporation profits ahead of the marine environment and Tasmanian communities.
The monitoring planned by the EPA to assess the impacts of florfenicol on marine ecology and wild fish is totally inadequate. The Greens will be doing everything we can to ensure there is full transparency on disease outbreaks and the use of this antibiotic.
The Liberals’ response to last summer’s marine catastrophe is shamefully inadequate. They must truly put the salmon farming industry on notice, as was promised to Tasmanian coastal communities.
Salmon State Capture Reaches New Depths
With today’s EPA approval of the highly-contentious antibiotic, florfenicol, the regulator and the government fail Tasmania yet again.
With another hot summer and even warmer waters, Tasmanians can expect to swim, fish and snorkel in a sea of antibiotics. We already have native fish with up to five times the accepted level of antibiotics, and now the industry has been handed a new weapon—florfenicol—in their increasing use of antibiotics to combat the tonnes of sick and diseased salmon.
The World Health Organisation fears antibiotic-resistance will be the biggest threat to human health in the future. “In their devotion to foreign-owned multi-nationals, this government and the EPA seem to have ignored such warnings,” said Lisa Litjens, Vice President of NOFF.
“Short-term profits and a small number of jobs clearly matter more to them.”
“Tasmanians should be warned of the dangers of their children swimming in our waters and of eating our local fish,” said Alan Kemp, NOFF Committee. “Tasmanians expect better. It’s high time we talked about regenerative aquaculture as an alternative to this polluting industry. Plenty of jobs and no antibiotics.”
Lilly Henly, NOFF Campaigner, said “A state where you have to check the EPA website or news outlets before you go fishing to see whether antibiotics are lingering in wild fish and marine environments, is that the kind of place Tasmania is going to be?”
Media release – Peter George, Independent Member for Franklin, 7 November 2025
The Summer Of Antibiotics Begins Now
Peter George said a new era of increased disease and antibiotics in the salmon industry in Tasmania is set to begin with rapidly warming waters this summer.
With the approval of florfenicol, an antibiotic never used in Tasmanian waters before, this will become known as the summer of antibiotics.
In an announcement buried on its website today, the EPA notes the Federal veterinary authority, APVMA, has approved the antibiotic’s use in public waters after an “emergency” application from the multinational salmon industry.
The Federal veterinary authority and the Tasmanian government have both rolled over to the demands of the multinational owners of the salmon industry who are motivated by profits, not by animal welfare or protecting our island’s marine environment.
The industry will now use ever more antibiotics as disease runs rampant in the state’s south-eastern waters through a combination of stocking densities, warming waters and infestations.
None of this is good practise, with the World Health Organisation warning that antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to human health globally, including through increasing use of antibiotics in farmed animals.
Antibiotic use in land farming is entirely different from its use in public waterways where it spreads into wild fish and other marine life.
Industry benefits from florfenicol because its fish can be harvested and marketed earlier than with oxytetracycline (OTC) which requires longer holding periods.
Worryingly, the Tasmanian government has turned to the Chilean salmon industry for advice – an industry with a shocking global reputation for the damage it has done to the marine environment, to wild fish stocks and to local communities.
As a farmer who promotes good farming practises and animal husbandry, George said he is appalled that the Primary Industry Minister, Gavin Pearce, can allow the salmon industry to get away with practises that have led to its loss of social licence.
George said he fully expects the planned inquiry into the industry to thoroughly explore the spread of disease in farmed salmon and its use of tonnes of antibiotics.
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 7 November 2025
Public Health Warning As Companies Rule Seas
Hundreds of hectares of Tasmanian inshore waters are to be polluted to the exclusion of recreational fishers by Huon Aquaculture’s fish pens pollution, but the multinational company won’t pay a cent in compensation, Bob Brown Foundation said today.
Tasmania’s director of public health, Mark Veitch, issued a statement on Friday afternoon recommending people consider not consuming fish caught within three kilometres of a salmon pen being treated with florfenicol, if they wanted to avoid exposure to antibiotic residue.
“That’s a clear public health warning. It comes with no regret or penalty or requirement to compensate by the Brazilian company which owns Huon Aquaculture. It is outrageous lax of the Rockliff government to let these salmon companies rule the seas at the expense of so many local residents and users,” Bob Brown said this afternoon.
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