Tassal’s August fish bid
TASSAL intends to have salmon in the water at the Okehampton Bay expansion site near Triabunna in August, despite a delay to its development application for shorebased infrastructure.
The company has confirmed it is undertaking “prestocking due diligence” for the site, and could not confirm fish entry dates until that process was complete.
“However, if possible the in- tention is to put fish in the water in August 2017 pending the completion of all regulatory conditions,” a spokeswoman said.
She said Tassal’s investment in Triabunna was worth $30 million and would deliver significant social and economic outcomes for the area.
Greens marine environment spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said news Tassal intended to input salmon in August was “an outrage” for the East Coast community.
“Fish farming in Okehampton Bay will pollute East Coast waters, harm fisheries and stunt the growing tourism industry,” she said.
“Communities deserve to have a say over their future and their waterways.”
The Tasmanian Planning Commission found in March it could not assess Tassal’s development application for a marine farming shore facility for the site because it had not been properly advertised by the Glamorgan Spring Bay Council.
As a result, the application needed to be re-lodged with the council. The plans included a wharf and 165m jetty, feed shed, office, access road and dredging.
It needed approval from the commission because the application included changes that would allow the land to be used for “light industrial” purposes.
Tassal said the application was “progressing” and that work at the site would begin in mid-2017, however the council is yet to readvertise it.
In February, the Marine Farm Planning Review Panel approved Tassal’s plan to install 28 pens and farm 800,000 salmon at Okehampton Bay.
Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff said at the time that the report “debunks false claims made by green groups around the suitability of the site”. Tassal has said there would be no salmon farming in the Mercury Passage.