Fight to scale back fish farms escalates

A BRUNY Island resident group’s fight to kick Tasmania’s largest salmon producer out of the North D’Entrecasteaux Channel is the beginning of a greater “reckoning”, says the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection.

Alliance co- chair Peter George said Killora Community Association’s recent demands for Tassal to turn over two leases in the channel to the state government were the first in growing demands for an end to industrial fish farming in “unsuitable waters”.

Residents have also called for the western side of the channel to become an extension of the Tinderbox Marine Reserve.

Mr George said the demands made “good sense”.

“The Channel is too shallow and the current too weak to allow thousands of tonnes of fish food and faeces to continue to be released in the water to the detriment of all marine life in the area,” he said.

Tassal’s increased production near Port Arthur has led to algal infestations, “despoiling some beautiful sites” like Long Bay and Stingaree Bay, Mr George said.

Mr George warned Tassal and fellow salmon farmer Huon Aquaculture “a reckoning is coming”.

“Coast communities are starting to realise the jobs created in the industry are simply unsustainable under these conditions.”

The Environment Protection Authority says there are no clear trends that identify aquaculture as the cause of recent algal blooms.

A Tassal spokesperson said that the company’s operations in the Upper Channel were fully compliant with the regulatory setting and its licence conditions.