Environment Tasmania will observe Federal Court directional hearings in Hobart today, in the hope that Huon Aquaculture’s action against the Tasmanian Government will provide a lifeline for endangered species in Macquarie Harbour.
“The Tasmanian Government’s handling of the crisis in Macquarie Harbour has been a five year long disaster. Science has been ignored and salmon tonnage increased as dissolved oxygen levels in the Harbour plummeted. The latest biomass allocation awarded Tassal double the amount of biomass than its competitors, confirming community concerns that there is an inappropriate closeness between the Tasmanian Government and Australia’s largest salmon producer,” says Laura Kelly, Strategy Director at Environment Tasmania.
Judicial intervention currently offers the best hope of survival for the endangered Maugean Skate, according to Tasmania’s peak environment group. One of the rarest marine species on earth, there are just 3,000 Maugean Skates left in the wild, with the population centred around industrial salmon farms in Macquarie Harbour.
“The clock is ticking for the endangered Maugean Skate, which scientists are calling the ‘thylacine of the sea’. Our hope is that Justice Kerr sets a tight timeframe for respondents to file their defences, so Macquarie Harbour, the Maugean Skate and our World Heritage Area have the best possible chance of recovery,” says Laura Kelly, Environment Tasmania.
Environment Tasmania is also hopeful that the discovery process will uncover evidence of damage to the Harbour, which salmon companies and the government have refused to release.
“A wide ranging discovery process is currently the best chance the public has of getting a truthful account of the environmental crisis in Macquarie Harbour, given Tassal’s recent refusal to release data on their dead zone and the Tasmanian Government’s insistence that evidence of damage in the Harbour is ‘commercial in confidence’,” Ms Kelly said.
Laura Kelly Strategy Director Environment Tasmania
