Offshore push for fish farms
TASMANIA’s salmon industry has welcomed plans to help it move into deeper waters, but opponents say it comes too late.
Primary Industries and Water Minister Guy Barnett and federal Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonathon Duniam on Monday announced an agreement to hasten the development of aquaculture in commonwealth waters three nautical miles off the coast.
“Currently, aquaculture in Australia is operated in state or territory waters and by moving further offshore … we can harness recent technological improvements and investigate the potential environmental and resource access benefits,’’ Senator Duniam said.
“The work will be led by the Blue Economy Co-operative Research Centre (CRC), an independent not-for-profit company funded under the Australian government’s CRC Program.”
Chief among the challenges are building pens that can survive the rougher conditions further offshore.
Times for the shift further out to sea are undetermined, although Senator Duniam said “the sooner the better”.
Mr Barnett said the plan to move further offshore was bold and innovative and would help drive the future growth of the industry.
Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection spokesman Peter George said the announcement was a distraction.
“The ministers’ promise to explore unproven deep-ocean technology while doing nothing to stop the salmon industry pouring thousands of tonnes of untreated sewage into coastal waters is nothing more than window dressing,” he said.