Unlike the Hodgman Liberal Government’s fairytale of a “sustainable” salmon industry, the Australian Sustainable Seafood Guide is telling consumers the truth. It allows consumers to just “say no” when wondering, in their decision to buy Tasmanian salmon, about their impact upon the marine environment.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s formal ‘Red listing’ of the salmon industry is devastating confirmation of what has been known for years – the Tasmanian Government needs to regulate to make salmon farming clean up its act.
Confirmation 1200 Australian fur seals have been shot, injured and blinded with beanbag bullets, and impacted by 9000 marine explosions this year, comes on top of consecutive summers of serious environmental impact in Macquarie Harbour. It has tipped the scales of what Australian consumers are – literally – prepared to swallow.
Successive Liberal Ministers over the past couple of years have stonewalled conservationists, affected communities, and other commercial stakeholders about the impacts of the juggernaut expansion of salmon farming.
The AMCS Red listing is an external record of the sustained harm being inflicted on the marine environment, and the stark evidence of the government’s failure to ensure a legislate for the environment.
This should be the ultimate red flag for the salmon industry and the government, who are still planning and promoting a doubling of the industry in the face of science and community concerns.
Unless Premier Hodgman, the now-Minister for Primary Industries, legislates to make the EPA an independent statutory body, and provide formal consultation and appeal rights for all salmon farm developments and operational conditions, it’s an industry at risk of collapse.
As the AMCS noted, unless the Tasmanian Government ensures the fish farming industry does not harm the environment, it cannot have a sustainable future in the state.
