Today the Acting Chair of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party [SFFP], Mr Ken Orr, called on salmon farming giant Tassal, to harvest early and reduce stocking levels in Macquarie Harbour, following revelations that the company plans to return at least 6 million litres of treated waste back into the waters of Macquarie Harbour.
“This is a massive biosecurity risk for our native fisheries,” says Mr Orr. ” the tarp traps alone created a serious risk of disease and now we discover Tassal will dump more waste back into the Harbour. We simply don’t have enough information about what is in this waste—Including whether it will contain antibiotics.”
According to Mr Orr, Tassal should be following the lead of Huon Aquaculture and Petuna and cutting tonnages in Macquarie, rather than stocking 4000 tonnes over legal biomass limits, with no clear proven and safe way to dispose of their waste.
” Rather than creating a biosecurity risk for our native fisheries, Tassal need to harvest early and cut tonnages in Macquarie Harbour, ” Orr says. Huon and Petuna have done just this, and there is no reason why Tassal should be given leave to dump waste back into public waterway that all of our fisheries depend on.
The SFFP plans to run candidates over a number of electorates including Lyons and Braddon in the approaching state election.
Adrian Pickin, Press Liaison Officer, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, Tas.
