May 5, 2021

 

No scientific basis for expanding Atlantic salmon production in Tasmania, Australia, says expert

 
  

An expert, who was previously part of a Tasmanian government panel that oversees the Australian state's Atlantic salmon industry expansion, claimed the absence of sound scientific basis concerning a planned doubling of production over the next decade.

 

Louise Cherrie, an environment management consultant who resigned from the marine farming planning review panel in 2018, told the ABC she believed there was misinformation about the industry that needed to be addressed.

 

Cherrie said while the panel had determined "the science is done" and the foundations of a "massive expansion" of the salmon industry in Storm Bay south of Hobart were solid, this was "just not the case".

 

She said she and Prof Barbara Nowak, a biosecurity expert, had left the panel after repeatedly raising three concerns: that there was no biogeochemical model to assess if Storm Bay had the capacity to cope with a substantial increase in fish biomass, no biosecurity plan and no regulatory standard that could consistently hold operators to account.

 

"Those things remain absent and yet we've expanded anyway," she said. "We did feel like we weren't making any headway and were unsuccessful."

 

Cherrie said the potentially harmful impacts of over-farming were well known from global experience, including the crash in the ecosystem in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour that hit the neighbouring world heritage area, forcing a significant cut in fish numbers three years ago.

 

She acknowledged that Macquarie Harbour and Storm Bay were "very different" water bodies – the former is protected, and the latter is the ocean river mouth of the River Derwent. However, Cherrie added that "the activities, the operators, the regulations and the regulator" were the same. "[Macquarie Harbour] is a crash we need to learn from," she said.

 

The three companies operating in the state – Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna – have been given initial approval to farm a combined total of 30,000 tonnes of salmon in Storm Bay, with the potential for that to more than double.

 

In January, ABC reported on documents that showed the decision to approve significant aquaculture expansion in Storm Bay had been made by just three sitting members of the nine-member review panel, and that reviewers had disregarded advice that there be at least 5km separation between aquaculture companies in the bay to help protect against the spread of disease. They instead opted for a "pragmatic compromise" of 4km.

 

The concerns raised by Cherrie and Nowak have been rejected by the Liberal state government. Through a spokesperson, the government said its vision was "for Tasmania's salmon industry to be the most environmentally sustainable salmon industry in the world".

 

It said it understood that the review panel had used the best available science, including a CSIRO-developed modelling tool for dispersion of fish waste. The plans in Storm Bay would allow the government to impose "contemporary and future biosecurity arrangements", and the state Environment Protection Authority had been asked to draft an industry environmental standard that would be released for public comment.

 

- The Guardian