Diseased dead salmon and fatty fish balls recently washed up on Tassie shores, spoiling beaches and waterways and the clean green Tasmanian lifestyle. This was due to a major bacterial disease infecting salmon farms that operate south of Hobart. The bacterial outbreak caused a mass die-off of up to 1 million fish.
Meanwhile, the endangered Maugean skate, the “thylacine of the sea”, is seriously threatened by the foreign-owned salmon industry. Rather than crack down on this harmful and toxic salmon industry, the major political parties joined forces in the last week of federal parliament before the election to pass laws protecting the industry from national nature laws and scrutiny.
A rotten salmon industry
Tasmania’s ever-expanding Atlantic salmon industry operates large salmon pens on the east and west coast of the state, breeding non-native species in estuaries and bays near the shore. These pose an increasing risk to the health of Tasmania’s waterways and coastal environments. The three main salmon companies are all foreign-owned multinational corporations, including JBS (Huon Aquaculture), Cooke (Tassal) and Sealord (Petuna).
Rather than take their salmon farming operations onshore, where the environmental impact can be much better managed in fully enclosed aquaculture pens, the salmon industry continues to force the extra cost of environmental harm onto the Tasmanian community. The industry is particularly damaging because of the large amount of salmon faeces, feed and antibiotics involved, changing the water chemistry of the local environment. Disease outbreaks like the recent one are predicted to become more common as the ocean warms due to climate change.
Simply put, offshore salmon farming is an industry poorly suited to Tasmania’s clean, green agricultural image—and a major threat to the native species that have lived in Tassie waters for millennia, such as the Maugean skate.
The Maugean skate sacrificed for political gain
The Maugean skate is a prehistoric fish that looks very much like a ray and is believed to only live in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania. It has been around since T-Rex roamed the Earth. Today, there are only a few thousand left in the wild.
Its habitat has been adversely affected over decades by changed river flows (dams upstream), nearby mining activities and warming waters from climate change. But in recent times, the significant expansion of salmon farming in the harbour has seen dissolved oxygen levels drop dangerously low. This is due to the large amounts of salmon faeces and feed breeding microbes that use up the oxygen, starving the Maugean skate of this very basic necessity for survival. The situation is so bad that the Federal Environment Department is warning that the species is at high risk of extinction.
Given the clear scientific evidence of the impact of salmon farming on the Maugean skate, in 2023 environmental groups requested the Federal Environment Minister reexamine a decision made in 2012 that allowed the industry to expand without a full national environmental assessment.
Rather than make the salmon industry go through this important process, just weeks before the election was called, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that he would introduce legislation into parliament to exempt the salmon industry from this process. This attempt to look strong on support for the salmon industry was supposedly shore up votes in the electorate of Braddon.
Peter Dutton’s Coalition party supported the legislation, which passed into law during budget week. The move sets a dangerous precedent of allowing corporations to avoid scrutiny, and is a rock-bottom moment on the environment for Australia’s Parliament.
A failure to deliver on a promise of stronger national nature laws
This ill-considered and rushed legislation follows the failure of the Albanese Government to deliver on its promise this term to strengthen Australia’s broken nature laws and end species extinctions. This backflip, too, followed a concerted campaign from vested industry interests—in this case, wealthy mining interests, notably Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
Although the Albanese Government has promised to establish a national environment protection agency if re-elected, they have yet to publicly re-commit to the full overhaul of the nature laws that was promised but not delivered this term.
Nature needs a voice this election
Positive nature protection has taken a backseat this election, with very little focus from the major parties on this critical issue so far. Check out our election resources to see how you can help get this issue on the agenda!
