*Pic: Fish Farm sign …Pic: Paul Tapp
*Pic: Marine Protection Tasmania … Image from here
All pictures Paul Tapp
Media at the council meeting …
First published July 28
Today a commercial fisherman will start a two week occupation of Okehampton Bay in protest of Tassal’s industrial salmon farm. Despite ongoing community opposition, salmon giant Tassal, the biggest fisheries company in Australia, is set to commence operations in Okehampton Bay on Tasmania’s stunning east coast in August.
Scale fisherman Chris Massie will commence his vigil supported by his mate, Tim James, as deck hand. The pair will be supported by representatives from Tasmania’s abalone and small mesh fisheries, who are united in their concerns about the impacts Tassal’s salmon farm will have on the marine environment and the industries that rely on it.
“Salmon farming is an important industry and no one wants it shut down, but there needs to be proper regulation,” says fisherman Chris Massie. “Okehampton Bay isn’t the right place for 800,000 salmon. It’s shallow, there’s low tidal flow and I believe faeces will build up under the pens. Then if there’s a big easterly, waste will be resuspended in the water column and wash-up onshore.”
“I’ve caught a lot of flack for standing up against this, but as a commercial fisherman I have a right to question the impacts salmon farming has on our marine environment, because all of our jobs depend on healthy fish stocks,” Mr Massie says. “My family and generations of my wife’s family have lived around and love Orford, which is a special spot for families with small boats and for recreational fishing.”
Ron Massie is a former head of Maritime Police in Tasmania and former Chief Operating Officer of the Fisheries Division within the Department of Primary Industries. He has more than 28 years of experience in fisheries management and will support his son in his two-week occupation of Okehampton Bay.
“Someone has to police Tassal, because this Government has failed to,” Ron Massie says. “Over the years government has spent millions to protect our wild fisheries; this betrays that. The tonnes of faeces and increased nutrient load from an industrial scale salmon farm will increase the risk of toxic algal blooms, which is a massive threat to our wild catch fisheries.”
“This Government is making a dreadful mistake in relation to Okehampton Bay, which will threaten the security of fisheries in the area, particularly abalone, rock lobster and scallops,” Mr Massie says.
Small mesh fisher Craig Garland says his industry wasn’t consulted by either Tassal or the Hodgman Government before approvals were given to put an industrial salmon farm in Okehampton Bay.
“They’re ticking-off salmon farms at the expense of our wild fisheries,” Mr Garland says.
“Government should be managing our resources for the general community, but it’s the big end of town that’s getting all the benefits. Okehampton Bay will be lost to us for fishing forever and we weren’t even consulted. Okehampton Bay is also next to a major seal colony, which means Tassal will be relocating even more seals into our northern fishing grounds,” Mr Garland says.
Ben Rex is an abalone diver and long-term investor in the industry. His family has a long connection with Okehampton Bay, where his dad has fished since he was a boy.
“I’m concerned about the impacts Tassal’s industrial farm is going to have on the environment and the negative impacts it will have on recreational fishing and our commercial abalone, crayfish and finfish industries,” says Mr Rex. “Everyone knows how important the salmon industry is for Tasmania, but Okehampton Bay just isn’t the right place for an industrial scale farm and pollution from 800,000 salmon,” Mr Rex says.
• Rosalie Woodruff: Okehampton Bay Boat Vigil a Sign of Strong Community Opposition
• Paul Tapp in Comments: … I’m just an interested observer, but being a local of 30 years just across the road to a beach where my kids and grandkids visit on regular trips back home…I am incensed at the temerity of any government that can allow unconscionable acts of desecration at the marine gateway to Tasmania’s most prized natural tourism asset, the Eastern seaboard. Ron Massie should be given a knighthood for the decision he has made to bring attention to the potential desecration of something he and all of us love … #30 Only those with trades skills will benefit from fish-farming in this area. Only those who have contempt for any industry that will potentially destroy the integrity of Okehampton Bay and surrounds are activating against it. You don’t need anything but base intelligence to see the future where almost a million 5 kilo fish, confined to an area the size of the MCG will do more environmental damage than the Gunns Mill and TPFH before Gunns. It was Gunns gunge that washed up as huge rolls of fake-seaweed along the shores of Orford every time the big swells came in. With the woodchipper came the constant growl of log-trucks night and day feeding the mill where you could hear “Mother Nature weeping as her children turned to pulp.” Once he was out of it, a worker whom I respected greatly told me that permits to flush the greedy water-swilling monster were done on a daily basis, not weekly under legislative agreement …
• Andrew Wilkie: Federal Government approval of Okehampton Bay salmon farm
• Jeremy Rockliff: EPBC approval good news for salmon industry and jobs
• Greens: Expanded Plans for Okehampton Bay Still Without Support
• Guy Barnett: Ms White in hiding over Tassal’s EPBC approval
• Fairfax: Antibiotics in salmon: Tassal quadruples amount, rivals reduce or eliminate use
