What is the point of guidelines?
FISH FARMS
OKEHAMPTON Bay being given federal environmental approval to proceed to grow salmon suggests that other areas of the East Coast are suitable for salmon pens, but the Government has ruled this out, obviously as a result of the social issues.
In 2015, DPIPWE released a Framework Policy applicable to Developmental Fisheries Activities. It states: “A major and increasingly important issue in advancing developmental fishing activities is an expectation that the Government can demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the community, the environmental sustainability and social acceptability of that activity”. The Government has boasted about it on the State Fisheries Facebook page and the Premier’s website, so in regards to Okehampton Bay, why is the Government defying the majority and shunning the framework policy it so passionately embraced?
The federal environmental approval is not an issue. The social issue is, otherwise the Government would have not ruled out the rest of the coast. For the Government to deny Okehampton Bay now would see it backing down, which is something it obviously would try to avoid. grandad’s 70th birthday, we woke up and got out of our tents and saw grandad out kayaking with about 30 dolphins who seemed to guess it was his birthday. I don’t think there should be a fish farm at Okehampton Bay because the dolphins won’t come back and the water will get dirty and murky and nobody will be able to swim there and enjoy it. I wish the people who want to put a fish farm at Okehampton Bay would go and see how nice the dolphins are, and how much fun it is for their kids and grandkids.
Scenic ruin
FISH farms are a dollar-grabbing venture. Our State Government should curb the numbers of fish farms appearing around the state. They will ruin the coastline and popular coastal beaches. Some areas of D’Entrecasteaux Channel have been ruined since the establishment of fish farms. Next they will appear in Wineglass Bay, the most pristine, picturesque, unspoilt region in southern Tasmania. have avoided if they had been upfront with people. Farming hippos wouldn’t have been a problem if it meant jobs and prosperity for Triabunna — they are badly needed. But the movers and shakers need to realise that the people who put them in council want to be treated intelligently and not find out, after the deals are done, that they don't matter.
Jobs mirage
I am responding to letters from Elaine Taylor and Barbara Walker (Letters, May 13). Regarding jobs at Tassal, it is my understanding that the fish are fed by an automatic feeder operated by one person.
Initially there may be some extra employment but long term there will be limited opportunity for locals to have employment. Plus, because they don’t use best practice, they will decimate the sea beds and kill off tourism. Also, the feed they give the salmon is not natural to the fish and is full of chicken offal and chemical-based colouring and antibiotics. How can this be environmentally sound? Our clean, green label is very much under threat with these practices. Surely there is a more sustainable way.
Food for thought
SHOULD the next storm surge wipe out Okehampton Bay fish farming, Tassal should ask Mayor Michael Kent for compensation.
Stranger than fiction
IT had to happen. Some time after the turn of the century an innocent American citizen sat down to watch an old Looney Tunes Tweety Bird cartoon during Halloween and bang — the first cross-reality transmission virus between animation and humans was set in train. Now the fullblown US pandemic — the Donald Trump presidency (Mercury, July 29). Sad.
Show us the evidence
MALCOLM Roberts needs to produce “empirical” evidence to confirm his citizenship change. Otherwise he was ineligible to sit as a senator when elected.
The buck stops where?
NEVER a truer paraphrasing of a proverb to describe President Trump and his administration by one of his minions than: “The fish stinks from the head down.”
Crumbling surface
THE seal on the new road at Perth has failed and I see the Infrastructure Minister has put the blame on to the contractor and not his lower quality Victorian standards. Why am I not surprised?