A dozen community and environment groups have written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urging him to not exempt the Tasmanian salmon industry from Australia's environment laws, as the community reels from recent fish deaths and fat ball biological pollution washed up on Tasmanian beaches and in Ninepin Point Marine Reserve.
In February, Albanese wrote to international salmon giants Tassal, Petuna and Huon Aquaculture assuring them he would introduce federal environmental laws to allow the continuation of salmon farming operations in Macquarie Harbour. This is despite the government's own report from their Threatened Species Scientific Committee stating that the salmon farmed posed a "catastrophic" threat to the survival of the Maugean skate in the harbour.
Since then the Tasmanian community has been shocked by images of thousands of tonnes of dead salmon being removed from salmon farms, and biological pollution in the form of fleshed-derived balls of fat washing up on Tasmanian beaches.
The joint letter expresses frustration at the prime minister's unwavering support of an industry that is polluting Tasmania's waterways and is clearly unsustainable.
It is undersigned by Surfrider Foundation, Keep our Coasts Clean, Bob Brown Foundation, NW Tas for Clean Oceans, Neighbours of Fish Farming, Environment Tasmania, Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, Killora Community Association, Bruny Island Environment Network, Marine Protection Tasmania, Tasman Peninsula Marine Protection and Friends of the Bays.
Media contact: Rebecca Howarth: 0493 395868