Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens’ Marine Environment spokesperson
The Storm Bay sea-grab by Huon Aquaculture, Tassal and Petuna will see 19 million square metres of public waters privatised. Tassal is planning a new lease site with 64 pens west of Wedge Island, with Petuna moving in alongside Betsy Island and Huon Aquaculture expanding off North Bruny Island.
The Storm Bay salmon industry expansion is the equivalent to 1,138 Sydney Cricket Grounds.
Industry are moving as fast as they can out of the Macquarie Harbour and the D’Entrecastaux Channel, waters they have seriously degraded. Intensive salmon farming has created dead zones, critically low oxygen levels, impacted upon World Heritage values, and produced slime and stench on shorelines.
Regardless of the Macquarie Harbour and D’Entrecastaux legacy, industry is proposing to produce 80,000 tonnes of salmon a year in Storm Bay. That’s more than one and a half times Tasmania's total salmon production last year.
The slick public relations meetings run by fish farm companies on the massive Storm Bay expansion make a mockery of genuine consultation, but have revealed the depth of community concern.
The Liberals’ Growth Plan for Storm Bay has been designed by industry, for industry. They’re operating without real government regulation, cementing the need for a moratorium on all expansion plans.
The message from communities on King Island, the East Coast, the Tasman Peninsula and Bruny Island is they want an immediate halt to expansion across the State, so they can have a real say.
We can’t have a sustainable salmon industry in Tasmania if there isn't social acceptance, and real regulation.
Just like King Island, a polluting, plastic curtain is coming for Storm Bay, and it’s backed by Labor and the Liberals, and some Jacqui Lambie Network candidates.
The Greens are the only party standing with the community, and calling for a moratorium on the rapid expansion of the salmon farming industry into public waters.